This study aims to explore how different sources of inspiration (namely, users, artificial intelligence (AI), and professional designers) as external stimuli influence customers' willingness to participate in user design. Results from four experiments show that inspiration from users, AI, and professional designers all positively influence customers' willingness to participate in user design. Self‐competence is found to mediate such effects. Moreover, we further identify that the effects of inspiration stimuli on customers' willingness to participate in user design is moderated by customer knowledge and product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian). Customers with low level of knowledge are more likely to be inspired by user designs and AI‐generated designs than professional designer counterparts. For utilitarian products, customers are more likely to be inspired by user designs and AI‐generated designs. In contrast, for hedonic products, customers are more likely to draw inspiration from professional designers. Our finding suggests that open innovation communities should offer a variety of designs from users and AI to inspire their users, thus encouraging their participation in user design.

中文翻译：

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用户、人工智能还是专业设计师？灵感刺激对顾客参与用户设计意愿的影响

本研究旨在探讨不同的灵感来源（即用户、人工智能（AI）和专业设计师）作为外部刺激如何影响客户参与用户设计的意愿。四项实验的结果表明，来自用户、人工智能和专业设计师的灵感都会对客户参与用户设计的意愿产生积极影响。人们发现自我能力可以调节这种影响。此外，我们进一步发现，灵感刺激对客户参与用户设计意愿的影响受到客户知识和产品类型（享乐与功利）的调节。与专业设计师相比，知识水平较低的客户更有可能受到用户设计和人工智能生成的设计的启发。对于实用性产品，客户更有可能受到用户设计和人工智能生成的设计的启发。相比之下，对于享乐型产品，顾客更容易从专业设计师那里汲取灵感。我们的研究结果表明，开放创新社区应该提供来自用户和人工智能的各种设计来激励用户，从而鼓励他们参与用户设计。