See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/353066038

FACTORS INFLUENCING USER SATISFACTION: CASE STUDIES OF TEN

COWORKING SPACES

Conference Paper in Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction · July 2021
DOI: 10.14455/ISEC.2021.8(1).FAM-04

CITATIONS READS
0 969

1 author:

Chaiwat Riratanaphong
Thammasat University
44 PUBLICATIONS 233 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Chaiwat Riratanaphong on 08 July 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction, 8(1), 2021
Interdisciplinary Civil and Construction Engineering Projects
Edited by El Baradei, S., Abodonya, A., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S.
Copyright © 2021 ISEC Press
ISSN: 2644-108X
www.doi.org/10.14455/ISEC.2021.8(1).FAM-04

FACTORS INFLUENCING USER SATISFACTION:

CASE STUDIES OF TEN COWORKING SPACES
CHAIWAT RIRATANAPHONG
Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand

Technological changes have an impact on the way we work and how we use space.
The flexibility use of space is important to a specific group of individuals such as
startups and freelance developers who operate their businesses in quite a new way.
Coworking space was introduced to cope with this new demand in spaces for work
with higher flexibility. This study aims to assess user satisfaction of ten coworking
spaces in Bangkok Thailand to see similarities and dissimilarities of users’ feedback
with regard to different arrangement of physical work environment and support
services of the coworking spaces. Research methods include field survey and user
satisfaction survey on work environment aspects. The findings showed several factors
of work environment influencing user satisfaction of coworking spaces including 1)
design attributes, 2) indoor environmental quality, 3) supporting facilities, and 4)
support services. This study provides a better understanding of factors influencing user
satisfaction of coworking spaces that can be used to improve and develop coworking
spaces in similar contextual factors. The limitation of this paper is the generalizability,
as this paper was conducted in Thailand. The impact of national culture may influence
the outcome. More case studies in Thailand and also other countries, based on surveys
with large samples of respondents are required to increase the validity and to establish
whether it is possible to generalise the study’s findings.
Keywords: Physical work environment, Support services, Indoor environment, Design
attributes, Collaboration, Flexibility, Workspace service, Bangkok metropolitan area.

1 INTRODUCTION
The changing in information and communication technologies cause a dramatic impact on
business and workplace. In 2018, there were 1.484 billion mobile broadband subscriptions out of
a total Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) population of 1.352
billion (OECD 2019). The nature of employment also changes from traditional working practices
to a greater variety and flexibility in work patterns (Cole et al. 2014). The increasing number of
small businesses such as startup companies and freelance developers has influenced the rental
workspace business that better responds to their needs and preferences on the design and use of
the workspaces. Coworking space was firstly introduced in Thailand in 2012 and has becoming
more popular in recent years, especially in the areas close to Bangkok sky train, an elevated rapid
transit system in Bangkok providing transportation service to more than 900,000 passengers per
day (Bangkok Mass Transit 2019). The provision of coworking space work environment that
responds to the requirements of users is the focus of this study.

FAM-04-1
El Baradei, S., Abodonya, A., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S. (eds.)

2 COWORKING SPACE
Work is defined as an activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform
something. It is also defined as something produced or accomplished by effort, exertion, or
exercise of skill (Merriam-Webster, 2020). The world of work today depends on the
collaboration between different groups of people to work together, exchange ideas, share
resources, accomplish tasks, and gain mutual benefits. Generally, these groups of people consist
of individuals with various background and expertise such as IT specialists, freelance workers
and startup developers. The provision of rental workspace used to serve this purpose emerged as
a coworking space known today.

2.1 Development of Coworking Space

Coworking space originated from C-Base, a non-profit association located in Berlin Germany,
which aimed to promote free public access to the internet and was one of the first hackerspaces in
the world (Foertsch and Cagnol 2013). In 1999, Bernie DeKoven introduced the term
“Coworking space” as a way to identify a method that supports collaborative work through a non-
competitive approach giving the opportunity for people to work on their own projects. However,
the official coworking space was launched in 2005 by the programmer, Brad Neuberg, in
response to both unsocial business centres and unproductive work at home office.

2.2 Spatial Components

Providing the spaces for collaboration, coworking space has been introduced to respond the needs
for sharing ideas, exchanging knowledge, and inspiring creativity and imagination among
coworking space users. Consequently, the physical work environment of coworking space that
supports these needs can be described in three main parts including: 1) public area, 2) semi-
public area, 3) and private area. Providing a comfortable and satisfying work environment is the
way to attract and retain customers of coworking space business. Working environment can have
a positive impact on user satisfaction and is regarded as an important factor to improve
productivity. This study focuses on three groups of physical work environment variables
impacting satisfaction of coworking space users that include: 1) indoor climate, 2) IT and
supporting facilities, and 3) interior design and furniture.

3 USER SATISFACTION
User satisfaction is recognized as an important factor in the success of an organization (Fleming
2005). User satisfaction about the working environment is defined as the degree to which the
working environment meets the wishes and needs of the working individual (Van der Voordt
2003). User satisfaction with work environment can be assessed by several techniques such as
satisfaction with specific aspects on a five-point scale, the extent to which users view work
environment aspects as being most important, assessing the most positive and negative
characteristics of the work environment or making a comparison with the original situation (Van
der Voordt 2004).

4 PROBLEM FORMULATION AND RESEARCH QUESTION

There are a number of coworking spaces that have been opened to service in Bangkok in the past
years responding to high demand of rental workspaces that not only provide flexibility in space
usage, but also promote user satisfaction. There is a need to collect feedback of coworking space

FAM-04-2 © 2021 ISEC Press

 Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction, 8(1), 2021
Interdisciplinary Civil and Construction Engineering Projects

users in order to provide areas of improvement and development of this type of workspace
service. However, there were no prior research in this area. The purpose of this study is to
identify factors influencing user satisfaction of coworking space users in Bangkok. The paper
aims to answer the following question:
• How satisfied are users with various aspects of the work environment in coworking
spaces?

5 RESEARCH METHOD
Data collection of this study is through a walk-through survey of ten coworking spaces in
Bangkok metropolitan area and the dissemination of user satisfaction questionnaires regarding the
work environment aspects of coworking spaces. The questionnaires collected data on the
satisfied aspects of the work environment on a five-point Likert scale, with 1 = very dissatisfied,
2 = dissatisfied, 3 = neutral, 4 = satisfied and 5 = very satisfied. Satisfaction percentage is
calculated from the average percentages of satisfied and very satisfied respondents. Work
environment aspects include both physical work environment and support services.
• Physical work environment includes: 1) lighting, 2) acoustics, 3) temperature, 4) air
quality, 5) arrangement of workspaces, 6) workspace furnishings, 7) arrangement of
furniture, 8) supporting facilities, 9) IT and IT support facilities, and 10) Interior design
appearance.
• Support services include: cleaning and security services.

6 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

This section describes and discusses findings from field survey and user satisfaction survey of
200 respondents using ten coworking spaces in Bangkok. To promote accessibility, the ten
coworking spaces were located around the Bangkok sky train stations that include: 1. Case A
(INN-Office), 2. Case B (The Cent), 3. Case C (Silver lake), 4. Case D (Joint cafe & workspace),
5. Case E (Syn hub Co-innovative space), 6. Case F (Growth café & Co-working space), 7. Case
G (Space.At.Siam), 8. Case H (KliqueX Samyan), 9. Case I (Draft Board), and 10. Case J (Wolf).
The findings showed similarities and dissimilarities between cases regarding design attributes,
indoor environmental quality, supporting facilities, IT, and support services. Particularly, the
contrasting results have shown in user satisfaction scores between case A (low satisfaction) and
case H (high satisfaction).

6.1 Field Survey

• Physical work environment - In most cases, coworking spaces were located in low-rise
commercial buildings. Case E and case H rented spaces in shopping centres to provide
the service. The findings showed similar square metre area of the coworking spaces.
Except for case B and C, all cases have more than 200 square metres of the total floor
area, which is suitable and adequate for space usage. Shared spaces such as receptions,
waiting areas, meeting rooms are main facilities provided in all cases.
• Indoor environment - The coworking spaces were provided with the combination of light
sources both from natural and artificial lighting. Generally, noises in the workspaces
mostly were conversations between coworking space users and were generated in an
acceptable level. The average temperature of all coworking spaces were between 23 - 25
degree Celsius, which is in a comfortable level of temperature for working.

FAM-04-3 © 2021 ISEC Press

El Baradei, S., Abodonya, A., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S. (eds.)

6.2 User Satisfaction of Work Environment

Findings from user satisfaction survey showed average percentage of user satisfaction on a range
of items of coworking space work environment including both physical work environment and
support services.

Table 1. Percentage of satisfied respondents with regard to different aspects (N= 200).

Satisfaction percentage
Physical work environment
A B C D E F G H I J
1. Lighting 40 80 85 65 95 85 85 100 75 85
2. Acoustics 40 85 60 80 65 80 85 85 55 90
3. Temperature 45 85 75 70 60 75 80 95 55 95
4. Air quality 50 85 90 60 80 85 80 95 70 90
5. Arrangement of workspaces 30 75 80 60 85 70 75 100 65 95
6. Workspace furnishings 45 75 70 60 80 80 95 100 65 95
7. Arrangements of furniture 35 70 75 65 75 85 75 100 55 95
8. Supporting facilities 30 80 70 55 70 85 80 95 30 80
9. IT and IT support facilities 40 80 75 60 85 40 80 90 60 75
10. Interior design appearance 20 65 85 45 80 90 80 95 60 85
Support services
11. Cleaning 50 65 90 50 90 85 80 95 75 75
12. Security 45 70 80 60 80 90 80 90 60 80

Table 1 shows findings on the average satisfaction scores on various work environment
aspects of ten coworking spaces (case A – case J) that can be described as follows:
• Lighting - this aspect assessed satisfaction on the adequacy of lighting between case
studies. The findings showed that case H achieved the highest satisfaction score on this
item (100 percent) whereas case A was the least satisfied (40 percent). Case H was
designed with glass walls around the coworking space and hence received more natural
light than case A, which was provided with limited openings in its coworking space.
• Acoustics - case J achieved the highest satisfaction score of 90 percent on this item due to
its building location that was situated apart from main roads providing a quieter
workspace. In contrast, case A was situated next to both main roads and a sky train
station and was considered as the cause of low satisfaction due to noise disturbance (40
percent).
• Temperature - users of case H and case J coworking spaces were satisfied with this item
(90 percent) whereas case A indicated low satisfaction score (45 percent) due to the
obsolescence of its air conditioning system.
• Air quality - regarding the regular cleaning and effective ventilation of the workspace,
case H achieved high satisfaction score on this item (95 percent). The limited openings
not only showed disadvantages in terms of lighting, but also affected ventilation of case
A, and was the cause of low satisfaction on air quality (50 percent).
• Arrangement of workspaces - case H achieved the highest user satisfaction on this item
(100 percent) whereas users of case A were less satisfied (30 percent). The larger square
metre area and higher ceiling height allow case H to freely arranged workspace settings.

FAM-04-4 © 2021 ISEC Press

 Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction, 8(1), 2021
Interdisciplinary Civil and Construction Engineering Projects

The building layout of case A with the presence of columns in its floor plan limited
ability to arrange the workspace and caused low satisfaction on this item.
• Workspace furnishings - case H coworking space provided workspace furnishings that
supports temporary use of student users who are main target customers and achieved
higher satisfaction (100 percent). Case A was required to improve workspace furnishings
that better support office users as the main target customers, and thus cause the low
satisfaction on this item (45 percent).
• Arrangements of furniture - again, case H has arranged the workspace furnishings to
support group works of students who were the main users, and thus achieved the highest
satisfaction score (100 percent). The arrangement of furniture facing each other of case
A that did not respond to user preferences was the cause of the low satisfaction (45
percent).
• Supporting facilities - case H has adequately arranged supporting facilities such as
monitors, printers, photocopier machines in shared spaces whereas case A provided
similar facilities only in meeting rooms and caused contrasting results of satisfaction
percentages on this item (95 and 30 respectively).
• IT and IT support facilities - the preference on high speed internet of case H (30 Mb/s)
brought about the highest satisfaction score (90 percent) whereas case A and case F were
the least satisfied on this item (40 percent). Particularly, case F provided only 10 Mb/s of
internet speed, and thus was the cause of the low satisfaction.
• Interior design appearance - case H achieved the highest satisfaction score (95 percent)
because the users experienced the modern design and settings in its new work
environment of the coworking space, which was recently opened in 2018. On the
contrary, case A indicated the least satisfaction (20 percent) due to the traditional look of
the building with few openings, which affected interior design appearance and the
perception of coworking space users.
• Cleaning service - users of case H appreciated more on this item (95 percent) whereas
case A and case D indicated the least satisfaction scores (50 percent). With regard to the
perceived service quality (Barrett and Finch 2014), the provision of cleaning service of
case H focuses on both functional quality (i.e. accessibility, attitudes, appearance,
relationships) and technical quality (i.e. knowledge, machines, procedures, solutions),
and thus achieved high satisfaction.
• Security service - case F and H both achieved the highest satisfaction scores on this item
(95 percent). The arrangement of security service of both cases that allowed security
personnel to closely monitor the areas and supported with the use of technologies such as
key cards in coworking spaces influenced user satisfaction. The open layout of case A
impacted user privacy and caused difficulty in the provision of security service and
resulted in a rather low satisfaction score on this item (45 percent).

7 CONCLUSIONS
The study shows various factors influencing user satisfaction of coworking space work
environment that not only concern about aesthetic and appearance aspect, but also about the
support and use of the workspaces. These factors are classified as design attributes, indoor
environmental quality, supporting facilities, and support services that can be described as the
following.
• Design attributes - focuses on aesthetic quality and functional use of the spaces. This
aspect concerns about capacity of building of the coworking space, spatial arrangement

FAM-04-5 © 2021 ISEC Press

 El Baradei, S., Abodonya, A., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S. (eds.)

of workspace layouts, arrangement and selection of furniture, and design quality of the
coworking space.
• Indoor environmental quality - concerns about adequacy of light, suitability of acoustic,
comfort level temperature, and acceptable air quality.
• Supporting facilities - includes facilities that support workspace efficiency such as
whiteboards, photocopier machines, printers, and monitors. In addition, the speed of
internet is becoming more demand in coworking space that usually requires data transfer
rate of 30-50 Mb/s for general office works and above 50 Mb/s for specific tasks.
• Support services - in addition to cleaning and security services, other work related
services such as the provision on workspace or meeting room reservation are essential to
attract and retain customers of the coworking space.
This study provides better understanding of the multifaceted variables influencing user
satisfaction of coworking spaces. Not only physical environment characteristics (i.e., design
attributes, indoor environmental quality, and supporting facilities) have an impact on user
feedbacks, but the support services also influence higher user satisfaction as indicated in case H
that provided better services in both technical and functional quality aspects. The empirical data
regarding user satisfaction on coworking spaces can be used to compare with similar data of the
workspace services when they are available in the future. This study applied ten coworking
spaces in Bangkok as case studies. More case studies on the assessment of user satisfaction of
coworking spaces are required to increase validity and make further progress. The impact of
corporate culture on user satisfaction and the statistical test of relationships between variables of
this study serve as subjects for further research.

References
Bangkok Mass Transit, Bangkok Mass Transit reveals the growth of Rabbit card to exceed 13 million card,
Bts.co.th, November 25, 2019, retrieved from https://www.bts.co.th/webview/information-
view.html?infoid=uJbmcHhDPAwVvKDTQecE0Q==&lang=th.
Barrett, P., and Finch, E., Facilities Management: The Dynamics of Excellence, (3rd ed.), John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd., United Kingdom, 2014.
Fleming, D., The Application of a Behavioural Approach to Building Evaluation, Facilities, Emerald
Publishing Ltd., 23(9/10), 393-415, July, 2005.
Foertsch, C., and Cagnol, R., The History of Coworking in a Timeline, Deskmag.com, September 2, 2013,
retrieved from http://www.deskmag.com/en/the-history-of-coworking-spaces-in-a-timeline on
September 10, 2020.
Cole, R. J., Oliver, A., and Blaviesciunaite, A., The Changing Nature of Workplace Culture, Facilities,
Emerald Publishing Ltd., 32(13/14), 786-800, September, 2014.
Merriam-Webster, Definition of Work, Merriam-webster.com, September 10, 2020, retrieved from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/work on August 2020.
OECD, OECD Broadband Statistics Update, Oecd.org, September 1, 2019, retrieved from
https://www.oecd.org/sti/broadband/broadband-statistics-update.htm on July 22, 2020.
Van der Voordt, D. J. M., Costs and Benefits of Innovative Workplace Design, Delft Center for People and
Buildings, The Netherlands, 2003.
Van der Voordt, D. J. M., Costs and Benefits of Flexible Workspaces: Work in Progress in The
Netherlands, Facilities, Emerald Publishing Ltd., 22(9/10), 240-246, July, 2004.

FAM-04-6 © 2021 ISEC Press

View publication stats