Abstract

The metaverse is emerging as a transformative platform-based ecosystem, where value arises from the integration of enabling technologies and the active participation of users (Dwivedi et al., 2022; Sami et al., 2024; Tingelhoff et al., 2024). Metaverse platforms orchestrate this value through VR, AR, rendering technologies and cloud computing (Dwivedi et al., 2022; Sami et al., 2024). Yet, these technological elements alone are insufficient. At the heart of value creation in the ecosystem are users’ participation and interactions (Tingelhoff et al., 2024). Those users that create and share content on metaverse platforms are defined in metaverse literature as ‘creators’ (Jung et al., 2025; Krüger et al., 2025). Creator marketplaces, such as that on Roblox, are already worth millions and embody the metaverse’s promise as an open creative canvas (Roblox Corporate, 2025; Schöbel & Leimeister, 2023). Studies have begun to examine what drives creators’ willingness to contribute. Evidence shows they prioritise large markets and revenue opportunities (Jung et al., 2025), while financial, structural, and social aspects shape their sense of ownership and, in turn, contribution (Lee et al., 2024). However, there is still limited evidence on the conditions controlled by metaverse platforms, as ecosystem orchestrators (e.g., access, content and visual layers, economic systems, monetisation, ownership structures) under which creators decide to share their content. To examine such conditions, we suggest that a factorial experiment is well suited, as it allows the identification of both independent and interaction effects of these conditions. We conducted an initial 2x2 factorial experiment with 128 creators. We focused on their intention to contribute content on the platform (measured through the content creation scale from Lee & Shen, 2024) and two conditions emphasised in prior research: control over how creations are used and monetised through Intellectual Property (IP) rights (Jung et al., 2025; Zhou et al., 2018), and the size of the platform user base, which defines the potential market for monetising content (Jung et al., 2025; Qayyum et al., 2024). Creators, screened and recruited through online survey platforms, were randomly assigned to one of four scenarios (small vs. large user base; weak vs. strong IP rights protection). Results show no significant effect of user base size nor of their interaction, but a robust main effect of IP rights protection: creators report higher intention to contribute content on the platform when IP rights are guaranteed, even on platforms with small user bases. Our interpretation is that metaverse creators, facing the uncertainty of an early-stage ecosystem, prioritise straightforward signals such as clear and enforceable IP rights guarantees. In this TREO Talk, we invite the IS community to extend these insights by testing additional platform conditions, ideally through experiments directly on metaverse platforms: monetization (e.g., revenue share, payout speed), creator tools and Software Development Kits, governance transparency (e.g., IP enforcement dashboards), licensing (e.g., portability, exclusivity), and interoperability. A broader research agenda could examine when strong governance, as our preliminary findings suggest, can substitute for user base size, and further advance the study of creator-first platform governance.

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