Factors driving user behavior and value creation with text-to-image generative artificial intelligence (AI): A systems theory perspective

The rise of image-generative AI has made it a crucial tool for image creators, gaining popularity in fields such as cartography, design, and photography. As users increasingly rely on AI for image creation, understanding the factors that drive user value becomes essential. Drawing on systems theory, this study proposes a conceptual framework to examine the relationships among integration effort, compatibility, synergy, and value creation. Data from 531 AI image creators supported our hypotheses, revealing that: (1) integration effort significantly enhances both compatibility and synergy; (2) compatibility positively influences synergy; (3) synergy directly and positively impacts user value creation; and (4) synergy serves as a critical mediator in the relationships between the two enablers—compatibility and integration effort—and user value creation, with compatibility also partially mediating the link between integration effort and synergy. These results extend systems theory by integrating it more deeply with the resource-based view and highlighting synergy as a pivotal factor that not only directly drives user value creation but also mediates the effects of compatibility and integration effort. Furthermore, the study empirically confirms that user value can be conceptualized through three key constructs: efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation.