Models Of Coworking Development In Regions Of Russia Under Conditions Of Glocalization

Abstract

The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that enterprising as an important factor in the development of the economy of the country in general and the regions, in particular, needs a modern adaptive business space. The new model of workspace organization was called coworking. Coworking is a modern model of work of independent entrepreneurs, united in time and space for realization of the professional activity. The aim of the research is to study models of coworking development taking into account the influence of the territorial factor and other parameters that can influence the model and its effectiveness depending on the region. The materials of the article are of practical importance for entrepreneurs who are in the process of making a decision to open their own coworking space - a separate business direction, and for those who are looking for cost optimization tools, either do not have a sufficient financial basis, or need an adaptive space, the use of which is possible in accordance with logistics rules - in the right (convenient) place, at the right time and at the needed best possible expenses. The results of the study within the framework of the selected topic will improve the business space of the regions of Russia, increase its adaptability in the conditions of glocalization and digitalization processes.

Keywords: Coworkingbusiness spacecoworking models

Introduction

The development of modern business space in the regions is becoming an important trend in the development of the economy of the country as a whole. Glocalization leads to the fact that the long process of business space formation in many countries, including Russia, is gaining positive dynamics, being at different stages. At the same time, the aspects characteristic of the development of this space in the regions of the European Union countries also penetrate the national market. One such trend is the establishment of coworking centers as an element of business space and business infrastructure ( Shirinkina, 2019). Coworking models are various, but the criteria and principles for their selection are not clearly defined at the moment ( Karaseva & Zakirova, 2018; Pryahina, 2019).

The higher activity of new generations of entrepreneurs and their competence in the field of commerce become the basis for the formation of demand for an innovative element of the business space - coworking. A significant momentum to create coworking centers in the regions and the consideration of coworking as a separate business niche is the fact that in the desire to optimize the total costs of enterprise maintainance, individual entrepreneurs or heads of small and medium-sized companies abroad have succeeded, including through the use of coworking centers.

Problem Statement

Despite the fact that coworking, as a format of innovative business space, has already become widespread abroad, as well as stable trends of its development in Russia are being formed, the issue of determining the most adaptive model of doing such business remains significant and not elaborated. The positive dynamics of opening small and medium-sized enterprises in the regions of the country forms the need to create a scientifically sound and practically oriented knowledge platform, which will allow any entrepreneur to make an optimal management decision: to create or not to create coworking as a business project, to choose a network or individual model of coworking, which specific business format will be competitive in the business space of a particular urban territory.

The business community, when making decisions on the above-mentioned issues, is currently making more use of the experience of developing coworking projects in European countries, as well as the small experience of Russian entrepreneurs. The problem is that the first experience – European – is not fully adaptive to Russian conditions and does not take into account the specifics of regional development, and the experience of the domestic coworking market is too small.

Research Questions

Significant risks of business development in the field of coworking in regions of Russia are largely based on the fact that in conditions of economic instability and in a situation of insufficient understanding of the essence of coworking by Russian entrepreneurs, acceptance of this innovation of business space is slow and requires from the creator of such business special efforts, as well as long-term investments, the return of which depends on many parameters, including in what specific territory and with what characteristics it is planned to open or develop coworking niches. According to Morgan and Sisak ( 2016), when the threshold of success for a person is high enough, fear of failure motivates additional investment. The results highlight the importance of the interaction between the degree of fear of failure and the aspirations of the future entrepreneur. The question before the entrepreneur is what model of coworking to choose in the market and how adaptive and attractive it will be for the business community of a particular territory.

Aspects of business models development have been considered in works of such researchers as Cosenz and Noto ( 2018), Foss and Saebi ( 2018), Ignateva ( 2018), Saeidi, Sofian, Saeidi, Saeidi, and Saaeidi, ( 2015), Wirtz, Pistoia, Ullrich, and Göttel ( 2016), Ritter and Lettl ( 2018), Teece ( 2018).

In turn, the immediate questions of development coworking as a promising business model have been considered by Russian researchers Karaseva A.E., Knyazeva A.O., Matvienko K.M. and others were directly involved in the development ( Karaseva & Zakirova, 2018; Knyazeva, 2018; Matvienko, Kutalov, & Kiselev, 2018).

In the works of foreign authors, the development of coworking as an element of business infrastructure is hardly covered, more emphasis is placed on the reasons to start your own business ( Morgan & Sisak, 2016) than on the factors of business infrastructure development in certain locations and forms of business enterprises, which are relevant for starting your own business.

Based on this, the studied experience of Russian and foreign researchers on aspects of the development of entrepreneurial initiatives and spaces allowed to present models of coworking spaces in the regions of Russia, to carry out an analysis of factors and trends that influence the functioning of coworking as an independent business.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to presentation and comparison models of coworking spaces in regions of Russia, analysis factors and trends that influence the possibilities of developing coworking as an independent business, development and proposal of parameters, accounting of which allows to increase the success of coworking center and reduce the risk of loss from implementation of such project.

The object of the study is the business space of urban areas and regions. The subjects of the study were models of coworking development in the Russian regional market reflecting the specifics of the business environment and business culture, which is in the process of formation.

Research Methods

In order to analyze and evaluate coworking models emerging in the Russian business space under the influence of glocalization, we analyzed trends and peculiarities of coworking spaces in certain regions of the country ( Abreu, Oner, Brouwer, & Van Leeuwen, 2019; Bennett, 2019).

The selection of regions is made taking into account the intensity and quality of the entrepreneurial contribution to the economic well-being of the territory and according to the number of small and medium-sized businesses, as the target consumers of coworking center services are usually young entrepreneurs of generations Y and Z. It is this process that forms differences in the models of cohabitation centers in the regions. As part of the study, we have identified several key regions: Samara region, Moscow and Moscow region, St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, Kaliningrad region. Theoretical and empirical methods of research have made it possible to determine the purpose of the study. Analysis and synthesis of data on the functioning of coworking centers in Russia and Samara region, in particular, became the basis for revealing coworking models in the regions, the proposal of evaluation parameters for the advisability of coworking development as a business, as well as the identification of principles for the development of coworking spaces. Marketing research allowed to define new models of coworking, the development of which is demanded from the position of the target audience.

Findings

The dynamics of coworking development in the regions is positive; however, it is important for entrepreneurs to create such a business at the right moment, when the level of saturation of the market by coworking centers is minimal or insignificant, choosing the business model that is most adaptive and efficient for a specific territory.

Analysis of coworking models within glocalization processes has shown that the network model is the most cost-effective as opposed to the individual model. The study of coworking models in the aspect of the main composition of the target audience, allows to single out universal and specialized coworkings. A prime example of the latter is coworking for moms with children ( Kalnins & Williams, 2014; Razorvina, 2017). Such a model of coworking space is extremely specific, as together with the target entrepreneurial audience, young children become visitors to this space, which forms a set of additional requirements to the business environment as a whole, its convenience and quality, as well as the schedule of work, additional services and other parameters. It should be noted that when considering the matrix "effort – usefulness," such a model of coworking is located in the upper right part of the matrix, characterized by high significance – usefulness for moms-entrepreneurs and medium-high efforts for the creator of business. For the multi-parameter evaluation of the demanded model, it was proposed to relate the two matrices, assessing the effort-usefulness ratio from the point of view of usefulness-effect for the entrepreneur-owner of coworking space. In the case of combining these two matrices, we obtain the need for extended analysis of the parameters, as the matching of the usefulness zones will occur only when this coworking model is implemented in a territory having so-called "favorable characteristics of the business environment."

Since it is this business that is very sensitive to the saturation parameter as opposed to simple rental of premises, the study highlights key factors whose accounting is necessary for the entrepreneur. Among the parameters characterizing the urban territory attractive for opening coworkings the following can be used:

• population size. Population over 1 million people (analysis of the territory's business activity indicates that this parameter is critical for regions of Russia). The leader in the number of coworking spaces among regions of Russia (we do not regard Moscow and St. Petersburg as business zones with special positive climate for development) according to data collected in 9 months of 2019, became Yekaterinburg (23 coworkings in the city area), Samara is in the 3rd place (16 coworkings, the prevailing model of development is the universal network coworking);

• the territory is characterized by high dynamics of residential real estate development (construction of neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city with young families, among which the share of enterprising people belonging to generation Z is significant). Generation Z is a term used in the world for a generation of people born after 1995. Representatives of this generation are interested in science and technology, as well as art. They are also noted for reasonable economy in both ordinary life and business;

• despite their immersion in virtual space, enterprising representatives of this segment prefer to interact with clients in a physical environment (they need an office, but not constantly);

• the territory of the region (city) is characterized by a high level of events;

• the region is considered investment-attractive. A business incubator is already present in the urban area (as a sign of sufficient business activity);

• entrepreneurs of generation Y are looking for opportunities to optimize costs - it is coworking that becomes a factor of optimization;

• on the territory of the city there is a high dynamic of development of commercial real estate objects.

Conclusion

Analysis of the models of coworking development and their peculiarities depending on the specifics of the territory and its business space made it possible to formulate principles, accounting for which will allow to build an effective business in the niche of coworking centers and improve the quality of the entrepreneurial environment:

• search for "anchor tenants" of coworking must be carried out in advance (as "anchor tenants" it is necessary to consider enterprises that are ready to purchase packages of services of a coworking center for the period from 6 months to 1 year. There must be at least 3-5 such tenants to reduce the risk of inefficient business operation. For their search it is advisable to use services for placement of contextual advertising (for example, Yandex.Direct), SMM-promotion and SEO-optimization of the site;

• the opening of a coworking should be a bright, beautiful and memorable event, with proper coverage of the event in the media;

• creation of the atmosphere of a working rather than empty coworking should be ensured already at the moment of opening;

• advertising efforts must be justified. The cost/effect ratio of the selected media must be as high as possible. For example, handing out flyers is generally low in efficiency;

• creation of demand for coworking center services should be carried out from the bottom up using pull-type model (in particular, in regions with high entrepreneurial activity it is possible to use such a tool, which has become widely distributed abroad, such as life placement);

• pricing in coworking business is complex requiring personification: differentiated hourly rate of payment, various packages of services, possibility to work during night hours and holding trial days of work should be based on taking into account the specifics of the regional business audience;

• for permanent (anchor) tenants, the coworking should be open 24 hours a day all days a week. In such a case, you can optimize costs by giving them personal access. This principle is typical for territories with high level of business activity in the market, and for regions with low level of business activity such a step can reduce profitability of business;

• regardless of the chosen model of coworking, the entrepreneur in this niche should expect a long payback period (about 2-3 years) (this time period according to the results of the analysis is approximately the same in the studied regions of the country);

• coworking is most profitable when it is needed by the creator of business as the entrepreneurial space.

Formation of scientific and methodological basis and principles of support of decision-making on selection of models of coworking development in regional markets is an important both strategic and tactical task, accordingly the results of the conducted study have practical importance for business communities in conditions of high dynamics of entrepreneurial processes.

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