Platform Ecosystem Dynamics and Value Co-Creation in Nigerian Digital Marketplaces: A Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective

This study examines platform ecosystem dynamics and value co-creation processes in Nigerian digital marketplaces from a complex adaptive systems (CAS) perspective, contributing an original theoretical and empirical framework to the digital platform marketing literature. Nigerian digital marketplaces including Jumia, Konga, and sector-specific B2B platforms have evolved into complex ecosystems involving multiple interdependent actors, including buyers, sellers, logistics partners, payment processors, and regulatory bodies, whose interactions generate emergent value outcomes that cannot be predicted from individual actor behaviour alone. Existing platform marketing literature, grounded predominantly in transaction cost theory and network effects theory, is insufficient to explain the non-linear, emergent dynamics observed in Nigerian digital marketplace ecosystems. Drawing on complexity science, service ecosystem theory, and institutional logics frameworks, the study constructs an original CAS-informed model of marketplace ecosystem dynamics and value co-creation. A longitudinal mixed-method design spanning 24 months captures ecosystem evolution, employing platform transaction data analysis, 55 actor interviews, and agent-based modelling simulations. The study contributes a novel application of complex adaptive systems theory to digital platform marketing in an African emerging market context, generating original theoretical propositions about ecosystem resilience, actor heterogeneity effects, and institutional co-evolution that advance both platform theory and African marketing scholarship. Keywords: platform ecosystem, value co-creation, digital marketplaces, complex adaptive systems, Nigeria