Sensegiving and Sensemaking Dynamics in Platform Ecosystems: The Case of Metaverse

Despite the growing body of research on platform ecosystems, there is scarcity of research on ecosystem emergence and the strategies that platform companies use to convince stakeholders to co-align with their ecosystems. We examine the sensegiving approach used by Facebook in the launch of its metaverse strategy and the sensemaking by the different stakeholders. Our paper contributes to an improved understanding of prospective sensemaking by showing how the launch event led to an ecosystem-wide "sensegiving tournament" in which stakeholders not only tried to make sense of the concept, but also guide the collective sensemaking with their own sensegiving actions to a direction supportive of their own business. Overall, our findings provide an enhanced understanding of the interplay of sensemaking and sensegiving in platform ecosystem emergence.