Investigating Users’ Perspectives of Coworking Space: Cases of Bangkok CBD

Coworking space has changed working style from traditional office space to a shared working environment with different natures of knowledge professionals and industry. This style of work space has been increasingly popular during the past decade in major cities across the globe including the Central Business District (CBD) of Bangkok, Thailand. The initial investment of this type of business is not complex. Hence, the survival of this type of business is not easily guaranteed because of not only high competitiveness but also unclear information from the user side. Entrepreneurs of coworking spaces need to understand the characteristics and perspectives of users which may differ in various regions and cultures. This research investigated the users of coworking spaces in terms of their characteristics, behaviors, and perspectives. The scope focused on coworking spaces locating on or closed to the mass train transit stations of CBD Bangkok. The research applied quantitative approach through questionnaire surveys with 300 respondents during November, 2017. There are many interesting results found from the analysis and somehow differ from past studies. The majority of respondents were younger than 25 years old who were students. However, a quarter of those were “Corporate Employee”. Coffee shop was the top place to work outside own office, seconded by coworking spaces. The behaviors of the majority of the respondents included: 80% visited coworking spaces at least one a week and almost half visited 3-4 times a week; they spent at least three hours per visit and about 15% spent longer than six hours. The perspectives of most respondents were used coworking spaces to increase productivity and chose a place based on location. The results call for further analysis and studies.