Samespace: Creating a new entrepreneurial space in a rural town

Abstract

Samespace is a new coworking venue created in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Located in a small town in North-East England, it was founded by an entrepreneur who wanted a better working environment to run his own business. The case focuses on sources of self-identified opportunity recognition and the transferability of entrepreneurial skills to address personal needs. As the business has become established, opportunities for the next phase of growth are explored in relation to the need for collaboration with different actors, including some whose business model may be quite far removed from one's own. The teaching note relates to the nature of opportunity and new venture creation as well as aspects of entrepreneurial growth. Drawing on coworking as a contemporary growth sector in the rural economy, it is suited to final-year undergraduate and masters’ level courses in entrepreneurship. The case study also provides a valuable example of entrepreneurship for students of rural development and rural economies in other disciplines such as geography, social and political sciences or economics.