Office space change in six Swedish growth firms

Abstract

Facility resources of growth firms have seldom been studied. The purpose here is to analyse how firms that increased their number of employees changed their office space use between 1995 and 2000 in the Gothenburg region. Six firms have been selected among those who had 1‐25 employees in 1995 and 50‐500 employees in 2000. Site visits with retrospective interviews have been used. Results indicate that growth firms tend to relocate when passing from an entrepreneurial to a managerial phase. Once having relocated within the region, these firms tend to plan for multisite operations with new small offices. Spatial expansion seems to be triggered when no more than 20sq.m are left per full‐time employee. When density rises, these firms avoid raising the proportion of remote work. This may reflect that security is a crucial issue, and a concern with protection would also explain an emphasis on creating office boundaries for visitors.

Citation

Dettwiler, P. and Bröchner, J. (2003), "Office space change in six Swedish growth firms", Facilities, Vol. 21 No. 3/4, pp. 58-65. https://doi.org/10.1108/02632770310469361