Towards an Ecosystem Architecture Theory of Productive Entrepreneurship in Structurally Constrained Economies

African economies exemplify a significant paradox in modern entrepreneurship development literature. Countries that consistently exhibit some of the highest entrepreneurial entry rates globally have concurrently struggled to convert that activity into structural transformation, industrial advancement, or sustained productivity enhancement. This manuscript presents the Ecosystem Architecture Theory of Productive Entrepreneurship (EAT-PE) to address this tension. EAT-PE contends that effective entrepreneurship is not chiefly influenced by the quantity of entrepreneurial endeavours, but rather by the ecosystem's architecture, which encompasses the structural arrangement and systemic coherence of institutions, intermediaries, markets, production capacities, and capital. The theory delineates a five-element causal chain: Ecosystem Architecture influences Architectural Coherence, which regulates Resource Flow Quality, which triggers Conversion Mechanisms, which then leads to Productive Entrepreneurship Outcomes. The study formulates eight testable theoretical propositions based on this chain. The manuscript uses two illustrative cases studies contrasting West African digital ecosystems with the hardware ecosystem of Shenzhen, China to support its propositional assertions. Also, three moderating factors elite capture, donor dependence, and institutional friction are indicated to influence the chain's operational efficacy. EAT-PE enhances entrepreneurial ecosystem theory, broadens the productive entrepreneurship literature beyond its Baumolian roots, and provides a structural explanation for the African Productivity Paradox, with practical ramifications for ecosystem design, capital sequencing, and enterprise development policy.