Abstract:

Can examples enhance the novelty of consumers’ ideas when consumers participate in firms’ creative activities? This article investigates how example uniqueness (unique or not) and designer source (expert or common consumer) affect the novelty of consumers’ creative ideas using two experimental studies. The results show that participants who exposed to a unique example exhibited a higher level of novelty of their new product ideas than those who exposed to a common example; The effects of example uniqueness on the novelty of consumers’ ideas varied with designer source of the examples; the number of far analogies generated by the consumers explained the effects of example uniqueness and designer source on the novelty of consumers’ ideas. The findings provide managerial implications for companies who intend to harness consumers’ creativity.

Key words: consumers&rsquo, creative ideas, novelty, analogical thinking, example uniqueness, designer source