The Impact of Digital Ecosystem Integration on SME Agility and Survival in the Post-Pandemic Era

• Billy Elly

  Lautech

  Author

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital adoption among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), yet the strategic integration of digital ecosystems—rather than isolated tool adoption—remains poorly understood as a determinant of organizational agility and survival. This study addresses the gap between digital transformation rhetoric and empirical evidence on how integrated digital ecosystem capabilities translate into post-pandemic SME resilience. Using a mixed-methods design combining survey data from 312 SME owner-managers across Nigeria and a systematic review of recent empirical studies, the research develops and tests a framework linking digital ecosystem integration to agility and survival outcomes. Quantitative analysis employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine mediation pathways. Findings reveal that digital ecosystem integration explains 89.4% of the variance in organizational agility, with agility fully mediating the relationship between ecosystem integration and survival (β = 0.412, p < 0.001). Production-oriented digital infrastructure emerges as a stronger predictor of agility than customer-facing consumption technologies. The study concludes that SME survival in the post-pandemic era depends less on the breadth of digital tools adopted and more on the depth of ecosystem integration across operational, relational, and strategic domains. Implications extend to SME managers, policymakers designing digital support programs, and researchers theorizing digital resilience.

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Copyright (c) 2026 Billy Elly (Author)

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