Platform Leadership Strategy and Ecosystem Orchestration in Nigeria’s Agricultural Value Chain Digitization

This dissertation investigates platform leadership strategy and the mechanisms of ecosystem orchestration as Nigerian technology firms attempt to digitize agricultural value chains spanning multiple geopolitical zones. Nigeria's agricultural sector, which engages the majority of the rural population, is targeted by multiple platform firms seeking to create digital ecosystems linking smallholder farmers, input suppliers, processors, and buyers. Platform leadership theory, ecosystem strategy theory, and agricultural innovation systems literature provide the conceptual framework. The research employs a longitudinal multiple-case design following five agricultural platform firms across the North West, North Central, and South West zones over thirty months. Data were collected through executive interviews, ecosystem participant surveys, field observations, and platform product iteration tracking. Process analysis and ecosystem mapping methods were applied. Findings reveal that ecosystem orchestration in Nigerian agricultural contexts requires fundamentally different strategies than those derived from urban digital platform studies. Successful orchestrators employ hybrid digital-physical presence strategies, combining mobile platform functionalities with trusted local agents who bridge digital literacy gaps. The study develops the Embedded Platform Leadership Model as an original theoretical contribution, specifying how platform leaders in low-digital-trust rural markets must invest in community legitimacy building and agent network development as prerequisites for ecosystem scale. Keywords: platform leadership, ecosystem orchestration, agricultural value chain, Nigeria, digital strategy.