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Purpose This study examines the connection between different digital-twin characteristics and organizational control. Specifically, the study aims to examine whether the digital-twin characteristics exploration, guidance and gamification will affect formal and social control. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on an analysis of survey results from 139 respondents comprising applied university students who use digital twins. Findings The results offer an interesting contribution to the literature. The authors consider the digital-twin characteristics exploration, guidance and gamification and investigate their contribution to two types of organizational controls: formal and social. The results show that two characteristics, exploration and gamification, affect the extent to which digital twins can be utilized for social control. Exploration and guidance’s role is significant concerning the extent to which digital twins can be utilized for formal control. Originality/value This study contributes to literature by considering multiple digital-twin characteristics and their contribution to two different control outcomes. First, it diverges from previous technical-oriented research by investigating digital twins in a human context. Second, the study is the first to examine digital twins’ effects from an organizational control perspective systematically.