We study the growth of InN films on In2O3(111) substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy under N excess. InN films deposited directly on In2O3(111) exhibit a strongly faceted morphology. A nitridation step prior to growth is found to convert the In2O3(111) surface to InN{0001}. The morphology of InN films deposited on such nitridated In2O3(111) substrates is characteristic for growth by instable step flow and is thus drastically different from the three-dimensional growth obtained without nitridation. We show that this change originates from the different polarity of the films: while InN films deposited directly on In2O3(111) are In-polar, they are N-polar when grown on the nitridated substrate. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.