Developing an Original Theoretical Account of Clan Networks and Economic Organisation in Hausa Commercial Communities

The economic organisation of Hausa commercial communities across West Africa has been attributed to Islamic commercial ethics, ethnic solidarity, and geographic trade network advantages, but the specific role of clan-based social structures as organising principles of economic behaviour has not been theoretically developed from primary sociological evidence. This doctoral study develops an original theoretical account of clan network functions in Hausa commercial economic organisation, drawing on five years of ethnographic and institutional research in Kano, Sokoto, and Hausa commercial enclaves in Lagos and Ibadan. Fieldwork combined social network analysis of commercial relationships among 340 Hausa traders, participant observation in Hausa commercial associations and settlement communities, 76 life history interviews with traders across generational cohorts, and institutional analysis of Hausa commercial dispute resolution and credit networks. The original theoretical framework, termed Clan-Embedded Commercial Governance, proposes that Hausa commercial communities maintain economic competitiveness through clan-organised governance mechanisms that provide contract enforcement, credit guarantee, market information, and reputation discipline functions that formal institutions fail to supply in the Nigerian context. Three original theoretical contributions are advanced: a typology of clan governance functions differentiated by commercial transaction type; a theory of clan-mediated trust escalation that explains how long-distance Hausa trade operates with minimal formal documentation; and an account of how clan commercial governance is being transformed by mobile money and digital communication while retaining its relational social foundations. The doctoral work advances economic sociology and African commercial studies through theoretically grounded original contributions. Keywords: clan networks, Hausa commercial communities, economic organisation, embedded governance, West Africa.