Distinctiveness through community: co-legitimation processes in coworking spaces

Purpose Coworking spaces attract entrepreneurs and startups by offering lower business costs, knowledge-sharing opportunities, and direct access to financial and human capital. However, to fully leverage these benefits, entrepreneurs must navigate the dual challenge of aligning with audience expectations while maintaining their distinctiveness. This research explores how entrepreneurs navigate this tension within coworking spaces. Design/methodology/approach An inductive research approach was employed, with data collected from three distinct coworking spaces that host entrepreneurs across multiple sectors. Findings Heterogeneous audience configurations shape both the type and intensity of pressures faced by ventures in coworking spaces. In responding to these pressures, ventures engage in co-legitimation – a set of relational and symbolic practices through which legitimacy emerges as a collaborative, rather than purely individual, accomplishment. These practices unfold through everyday interactions, reciprocal support, and strategic presentation, allowing ventures to become embedded in the community while sustaining distinctive positioning over time. Originality/value This study introduces the concept of co-legitimation and contributes to optimal distinctiveness theory by demonstrating how legitimacy in coworking spaces is fluid, audience-contingent, and co-constructed through relational embedding and symbolic positioning.