Digital Leverage in Business Ecosystems: How AI and E-Commerce Enable Market Capabilities in Resource-Constrained Entrepreneurship
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This systematic literature review investigates the methods by which resource-limited entrepreneurs leverage artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce platforms, and various digital technologies to enhance market capabilities amidst resource constraints. Anchored on the viewpoints of platform ecosystems and dynamic capacities, the research employs a PRISMA-based review of scholarly articles released from 2015 to 2025. A cumulative total of 195 items were incorporated into the final collection. The results suggest that digital platforms and AI-driven tools can enhance access to clients, information, digital infrastructure, analytics, and distribution services, whereas their impact on the development of firm-level capabilities relies on how entrepreneurs utilise, integrate, and reorganise these externally sourced resources. The literature examined places more emphasis on customer acquisition and digital distribution than on pricing optimisation and market sensing. The evaluation also highlights a continual disparity between digital accessibility and the advancement of capabilities, with scant longitudinal data elucidating how the habitual utilisation of digital resources integrates into entrepreneurial practices. Utilising the synthesis, the research formulates a conceptual framework that situates digital leverage as a conduit linking ecosystem resources and digital affordances with sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring processes, culminating in market-facing capabilities. The research offers a mechanism-focused viewpoint on how entrepreneurs with limited resources can transform externally available digital assets into market competencies and highlights areas for future investigation regarding measurement, long-term capability enhancement, and contextual differences.
Author: Walter Mthuthuzeli Mkosana
Institution: Central University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225229227
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