Impact of psychological safety and self-construal on psychological ownership in access-based co-working spaces: a moderated mediation analysis

PurposeThis study aims to examine the factors affecting psychological ownership towards access-based co-working spaces, and how psychological safety and self-construal affect psychological ownership.Design/methodology/approachThis is a cross-sectional quantitative study and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling with AMOS was used for data analysis.FindingsThe significant mediating impact of psychological safety reveals that access-based service providers can improve customers' psychological ownership towards co-working spaces through ensured psychological safety. Furthermore, customers with interdependent self-construal were more concerned on psychological safety than ones with independent self-construal when generating psychological ownership feelings.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examined the roles of only a set of key determinants of psychological ownership. In addition, this study investigated psychological ownership at individual and service levels only.Practical implicationsAs new work practices make an impact on the psychological conditions of users as well, this study helps practitioners to identify the strategies to stimulate consumers' service psychological ownership towards access-based services to increase consumer demand.Originality/valueThe authors identify psychological safety as a mediator and self-construal as a moderating factor that explains the complex dynamics involved in consumer perceptions of psychological ownership in co-working context. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that test the phenomenon of access-based co-working space context using psychological ownership theory and also one of the very few attempts taken to develop and test a comprehensive model explaining psychological ownership relationships using a moderated mediation analysis.