Platform Ecosystems and Entrepreneurial Value Architecture: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence from Nigeria’s Digital Economy

This dissertation develops an original theoretical framework for understanding platform ecosystems as value architectures within which entrepreneurial activity occurs, and empirically tests the framework using longitudinal evidence from the evolution of Nigeria's digital economy platform sector. Platform economy research has advanced rapidly, but existing theories of platform ecosystems were developed from mature Silicon Valley or Chinese digital market cases and do not adequately explain the emergence and structuration of platform ecosystems in the specific conditions of an African emerging digital economy characterised by late mobile internet adoption, dominant informal economy integration, and distinctive cultural and regulatory contexts. The dissertation employs a longitudinal multi-platform case study design, tracking the ecosystem evolution of five Nigerian digital platforms including a payments platform, a ride-hailing service, an e-commerce marketplace, an agricultural information platform, and a professional services marketplace, over a four-year observation period. Data were collected through 60 interviews with platform founders, ecosystem participants, and regulators, continuous document analysis, and structured metrics data collection. The original theoretical contribution, the Entrepreneurial Platform Value Architecture framework, introduces three novel theoretical constructs: informal economy on-boarding mechanisms as a distinctive platform growth pathway in emerging markets; regulatory co-evolution as a dynamic feature of African platform governance; and ecosystem boundary permeability, the degree to which ecosystem value creation extends into off-platform community and informal economic activity. The framework explains value creation dynamics in African platform ecosystems that existing theories misattribute to platform network effects alone. Keywords: platform ecosystem, digital economy, value architecture, Nigeria, entrepreneurial theory.