LAUSR

Matchmaking is introduced to the coworking literature as a process of connecting potential collaboration partners. The process itself is realised through a smartphone application drawing on user-generated profiles, allowing coworkers to create tags according to their business interests and challenges, find cooperation opportunities, and get in touch via instant messaging or voice chat. Acceptance of software support for finding matches in the coworking space context is examined using a modified Technology Acceptance Model, investigating the role of personal innovativeness as additional factor. Personal innovativeness describes an individual’s tendencies towards novel technology for the sake of trying something new. Cluster sampling was employed among 300 German coworking spaces, 93 responses qualified for analysis. Matchmaking is seen as an opportunity to find help for current challenges, personal learning, and establish relations by coworkers. Perceived usefulness is found to be the main factor of acceptance, indicating the need to design matchmaking mechanisms as organically implemented within the coworking ecosystem as possible, preferably integrating it with existing applications.