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Paper short abstract

How do small businesses build climate resilience when state support is limited? Drawing on mixed-methods evidence from Lagos, the paper shows how social and business networks generate resilience by providing information, financial buffering, and collective problem-solving in fragile urban economies.

Paper long abstract

Research and policy responses to climate change often privilege state-led interventions in supporting small businesses, despite their acute vulnerability to climate-related shocks. Yet in fragile urban economies, climate stressors are frequently protracted and cyclical, stretching formal state capacity and compelling businesses to rely on alternative sources of support, particularly in contexts of infrastructural deficits and regulatory uncertainty. This paper examines how small businesses build resilience to climate-related stressors in Lagos, Nigeria, by mapping the sources of social capital they mobilise and tracing the routes through which these networks shape adaptive capacity. Drawing on mixed-methods evidence from semi-structured interviews with key actors and surveys of 200 business owners, the study identifies business associations, peer networks, informal finance, and relational ties as central to preparedness, coping, and recovery across different stages of climate stress. The findings show that while business owners recognise climate risks and are willing to adapt, resilience is primarily generated through social networks that provide information, financial buffering, coordination, and collective problem-solving, rather than through state policy alone. By foregrounding how social capital is generated and mobilised in a context of economic fragility and recurring climate stress, the paper contributes to debates on resilience by demonstrating the conditions under which community-embedded networks can both support and constrain long-term adaptive capacity.