The methodological aspects of conducting qualitative near-sociological studies of informal communities in the context of urban studies have been studied. The paper analyzes the research approach transformation in the study of youth groups in the historical district of Rzhevka-Porokhovye in the Krasnogvardeysky district of St. Petersburg. The object of the research is the youth communities of the district, the subject is the informal rules and patterns of their intra-group interaction. The purpose of the study is to establish and systematize a set of unspoken rules that have been used for successful implementation of the included observation method in the study of closed social groups. The study result is a consolidated methodological analysis of the basic informal rules used to implement inclusive monitoring of youth groups in a specific urban environment. This study is a generalization of the results obtained in the framework of a successfully presented Master’s thesis in Urban Planning at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow) on the topic “Urban planning factors in youth groups formation: St. Petersburg’s Rzhevka-Porokhovye district case”. The established methodology of working with complex communities is of applied importance for urban and sociological research, as well as for working with youth.

This study examines the influence of farmer group institutional dimensions on clove agricultural land management in Tolitoli Utara District, Central Sulawesi. Employing a quantitative associative design, data were collected from 50 active clove farmers using purposive sampling, supported by questionnaires, interviews, and field observations. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to evaluate the effects of organizational structure, member participation, formal and informal rules, and evaluation and supervision on land management practices. The results indicate that organizational structure and member participation have positive and significant effects, reflecting the importance of coordination and active engagement in improving agricultural performance. Conversely, formal and informal rules, as well as evaluation and supervision, exhibit significant negative effects when characterized by rigidity and administrative intensity, suggesting that excessive institutional control may hinder adaptability and reduce farmer initiative. Simultaneously, all variables significantly influence land management, with a high coefficient of determination indicating strong explanatory capacity. The findings highlight the need for adaptive and participatory institutional arrangements to enhance productivity and sustainability in smallholder clove farming systems.

The advancement of global endeavors to mitigate climate change is largely influenced by developments within China’s transportation sector. This study focuses on the crucial role of biodiesel as a biofuel in China’s transportation sector and its significant contributions to China’s carbon neutral target. Employing the Long-range Energy Alternative Planning System, this paper formulates five distinct scenarios encompassing the prevailing trend, the promotion of B5 (5% biodiesel blend) and B10 (10% biodiesel blend), China’s existing policy framework, European Union policy portfolio, as well as alternative biofuels. Our analysis reveals that all scenarios exhibit varying degrees of CO2 emissions reduction by the year 2040, with the EU scenario achieving the largest absolute reduction in emissions (about 8.6% of China’s peak annual emissions). The B5-B10 scenario presents a more significant reduction in CO2 emissions compared with the alternative biofuel scenario, although it proves to be less effective in addressing other pollutant emissions. Furthermore, through policy instruments such as a 70% value-added tax (VAT) rebate and informal regulations driven by public participation in waste cooking oil recycling, China could reduce biodiesel production costs by approximately $1,800 per ton annually. These findings underscore the global implications of China’s low-carbon transportation strategy and highlight the impact of integrating both formal environmental policies and informal public engagement in shaping the sustainable development of China’s transportation sector. • Five scenarios and the LEAP model were used to assess biodiesel in China’s transport. • B5/B10 blends cut CO 2 and deliver strong economic gains by 2030. • EU policy mix scenario achieved the largest CO 2 emissions reduction. • M5-M10 cut CO 2 less, but reduced sulfur and nitrogen more than B5-B10. • China’s taxes and informal rules could lower production costs US$1,800/ton annually.

The article provides a conceptual substantiation of the role of human capital as a constraining factor in the development of agrarian entrepreneurship in Ukraine under conditions of institutional transformations. The relevance of the study stems from the contradiction between the traditional resourcebased interpretation of human capital and the actual practice of agrarian entrepreneurship, in which the availability of education, professional experience, and labour resources does not guarantee their effective utilisation. This contradiction remains insufficiently conceptualised in the contemporary scholarly literature, which defines the logic of the proposed research. The purpose of the article is to conceptualise human capital within the structure of institutional constraints on agrarian entrepreneurship in Ukraine. The methodological basis of the study is the institutional approach, supplemented by elements of systemic and structuralfunctional analysis. Human capital is examined not as an exogenous factor of growth, but as an endogenous variable of the institutional system, whose effectiveness is determined by the quality of formal and informal rules that structure the behaviour of economic agents in the agricultural sector. The article proposes a decomposition of human capital into four types of institutional constraints: demographic, qualificationcompetence, motivational-behavioural, and institutional-organisational. It is demonstrated that each of these constraint types has a reproductive character and is reinforced through the adaptation mechanisms of economic agents to an unstable institutional environment. The cumulative effect of these constraints is shown to generate an institutional trap, in which even formally sound human capital development policies fail to produce the expected outcomes without parallel improvements to the institutional environment. For each type of constraint, corresponding institutional mitigation mechanisms are identified, encompassing demographic and territorial policy, education and competence mechanisms, institutional stabilisation instruments, and the development of cooperative and network forms of agrarian entrepreneurship organisation. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the conceptualisation of human capital as a structural element of institutional constraints on agrarian entrepreneurship, in contrast to its traditional interpretation as a universally positive resource. The proposed typology of constraints and the corresponding system of mitigation mechanisms form a coherent analytical framework that extends the explanatory potential of the institutional approach with respect to the problems of agrarian entrepreneurship. The practical significance of the findings consists in their applicability to the formation of state policy for agrarian entrepreneurship development. In particular, the results substantiate the necessity of shifting the emphasis of agrarian policy from the quantitative accumulation of competencies towards the creation of institutional conditions for their realisation, which is of fundamental importance for overcoming the structural imbalances in human capital development in Ukraine's agricultural sector

Abstract The PCAOB adopted critical audit matters (CAMs) to meet public demand for informative audit disclosure, but stakeholders are concerned this goal has not been achieved. We explore this disconnect via interviews with 30 highly experienced auditors. We find that audit firms expended considerable resources to implement CAM best practices. However, overwhelming institutional pressure gave rise to informal rules of thumb that prioritize symbolic comfort over substantive change. The first is don’t be an outlier , so auditors defer to the national office to ensure conformity and avoid PCAOB scrutiny. The second is report the “right” number of CAMs by never reporting zero and reporting at least one recurring CAM. The third is avoid surprises by communicating with the client to ensure that CAMs do not contain original information and allowing management to preempt auditor disclosures. Collectively, these rules yield CAMs that comply with PCAOB standards but do not provide new information and instead maintain the status quo.

Gender quotas have increased women’s presence in many parliaments; what is the impact on participation and conduct within parliamentary debates? This article applies a feminist institutionalist framework to demonstrate how formal and informal institutions shape the gendered nature of debates. Using France as a case study, the analysis examines debates over a twenty-year timeframe, during which women’s numbers trebled. The article deploys both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse extensive original data, including debate transcripts and parliamentary questions. The article identifies the formal and informal rules that shape these debates and explores how they vary across different settings and over time. The findings show that women prioritise different topics to men; men engage in more ‘masculine’ behaviours such as attacks, interruptions and banter; gender gaps are wider in more public settings; and many gender gaps have not narrowed over time, showing how informal rules resist change.

ABSTRACT This study examines internal and external social control (SC) within Israeli nudist and naturist communities, by conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 community members. Analysis revealed that these communities function as spaces of acceptance and personal liberation, due to marginalization by society. Also, non-sexual nudity is perceived as a symbol of equality and freedom, maintained through informal rules and peer monitoring. Enforcement of norm violations vary between groups as sanctions are either immediate or lenient. Participants preferred resolving breaches internally, while avoiding police involvement. These insights contribute to informal social control discussion and emphasize autonomy and safety in nude communities.

Social media has become a key venue where PhD graduates seek career information, compare experiences, and negotiate uncertainty. Drawing on information behavior and sense-making perspectives, this study examines how returnee PhDs from non-core study destinations discuss employment challenges in China’s academic labor market when credential signals are contested. Using Korean-trained PhDs as a theoretically motivated exemplary case, we collected 1149 publicly available posts from Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform, and applied BERTopic to identify latent themes, followed by qualitative close reading of representative posts to interpret discourse functions. The model yielded ten topics, and semantic association analysis indicates substantial overlap among high-frequency topics, suggesting intertwined concerns rather than neatly separated issue domains. The four most prevalent topics account for 72.06% of the corpus, centering on credential recognition, job-search pathways, informal screening rules, and intersecting age- and gender-related pressures. Qualitative readings further reveal recurring discursive moves, including exposing tacit hiring heuristics, contesting stigmatizing labels (e.g., “water PhD,” a derogatory term implying low-quality credentials), and exchanging actionable strategies across regions and career tracks. Overall, the findings point to discursive convergence under evaluation uncertainty: when formal criteria are ambiguous and institutional signals are unreliable, participants turn to social media to stabilize expectations by triangulating cases and iteratively refining shared interpretations of the job market. This study contributes empirical evidence on uncertainty-driven information practices in highly educated labor markets and demonstrates the value of combining topic modeling with qualitative interpretation to capture online collective sense-making.

ABSTRACT Part of the broad line of research on inequalities in academia, this article focuses on a more specific but less investigated aspect: men’s and women’s unequal access to university governance positions in the context of neoliberal academia. We assume from the literature on institutional change and gender equality the importance of considering both formal and informal rules. The article empirically analyzes the Italian case study, where a variety of feminization processes have emerged under the umbrella of weak national legislation. Five universities are examined as examples of this variety. Adopting a longitudinal perspective, their apical decision-making bodies are compared in relation to the evolution of their formal rules of access (through the analysis of the statutes) and their feminization processes (through the analysis of their composition). We show that, in the Italian context, paradoxically, the concentration of power in the hands of the rector determined, in the five universities under analysis, an incentive for top-down policies to promote gender equality as an informal practice linked to a search for legitimation. This happened independently of formal rules promoting gender equality in the bottom-up selection of women for apical university decision-making bodies. Therefore, the contribution of this work is twofold: the importance of informal rules in the processes of institutional change is confirmed; however, unlike what is more often highlighted in the literature, it is shown that they are not only a brake on change, since under certain conditions, they can also play a positive role and accelerate the pace of change.

Purpose Although employers are attracting increasing attention as actors influencing international labour migration, migration studies do not offer a theoretical framework for researching their multi-level influence in this field. Moreover, studies typically focus on employers' actions, especially in policymaking, and do not examine their broadly conceived interests, which sometimes influence labour migration without the employers' active involvement. This article adapts neo-institutionalist concepts, particularly the concept of the institutional environment, and offers a comprehensive theoretical framework for studying employers' interests in labour migration. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper operationalises the institutional environment concept by offering a matrix of institutions within this environment that must be considered when researching employers' interests in international labour migration. Findings These institutions are classified as related to the sphere of the labour market, immigration or political processes, and as operating on one of three levels of social analysis proposed by Williamson (2000a): the level of informal rules, formal rules or the play of the game. Research limitations/implications The paper suggests a new route for researching the employers' role in migration, based on New Institutional Economics concepts. It draws upon academic publications on European employers, without offering its own empirical results. Further steps will be necessary to translate this framework into methodological steps, which may be specific to the study of the employers' role and interests in particular cases and contexts. Practical implications This article is meant primarily for social scientists researching migration or mobility within such fields as economics, political science, sociology or management. By offering a broad conceptual framework, it aims to stimulate new research avenues and build bridges across disciplines and various levels of analysis (micro, meso and macro). In particular, it directs research towards the question of the role of employers' interests in migration. This role has been underresearched in part due to the employers' almost complete absence from migration theories. Social implications Public debates around immigration in the Western world today present migration mainly as resulting from push factors in the countries of origin of migrants and as facilitated by intermediaries, including smugglers. The discourse around migration is highly securitised, while economic arguments play a secondary role. This paper contributes to rebalancing the debate by bringing to the fore and facilitating the study of the role of employers in destination countries, who are fundamental in creating demand for migrant workers, and thus pull factors for international labour migration. Originality/value The proposed matrix can serve as a comprehensive framework for studying the institutional environment that channels employers' pursuit of interests related to international labour migration. Reverting to neo-institutional concepts opens up new possibilities for researching the under-researched topic of employers' interests in migration. While this framework draws on studies from Europe, it can be used to research employers' interests across all democratic market economies.

ABSTRACT Informal rules are an underexplored component of collaborative governance, yet they play a critical role in digital transformation projects. This study examines their functions and constraints through a longitudinal case study of the Hui‐Tian City Brain project in Beijing. Drawing on government documents, media reports, and interviews with officials, IT enterprises, and civil servants, we trace the emergence and evolution of the informal ‘product recommendation meeting’ rule. This rule streamlined deliberation by reducing information asymmetries, lowering coordination costs, and facilitating joint action across sectors. However, its effectiveness was constrained by the high transaction costs of repeated face‐to‐face meetings and the limited, invitation‐based caucus structure of collaboration. The findings show that informal rules can both enable and restrict collaboration in digital transformation. We argue for greater attention to informal institutional arrangements in understanding and designing collaborative governance.

ABSTRACT Institutions are the formal and informal rules that govern social, political, and economic life. In post‐colonial contexts, indigenous/local institutions coexist and evolve alongside liberal‐imported ones, sometimes gaining formal recognition and leading to institutional hybridity. This article aims to examine how liberal and hybrid formal institutions differ in their rules for leadership selection and decision‐making, and to explore the practical implications of hybridity in terms of bureaucracy and legitimacy. The research reveals that hybrids are intricate systems that accommodate dual normative frameworks, adding procedural layers, timelines, and administrative requirements. Yet, while being more complex and bureaucratic, they are also more legitimate.

The article is devoted to the study of the institutional landscape of export activity in Ukraine under martial law, increasing foreign economic risks, and deepening European integration processes. The purpose of the research is to provide a formal and conceptual definition of the category “institutional landscape” and, on this basis, to identify the key institutional characteristics of Ukraine’s export regime.The methodological framework of the study is based on the principles of classical institutionalism and new institutional economics, in particular the theory of transaction costs, legal and contractual institutions, as well as approaches to the analysis of formal and informal rules of economic activity.The institutional landscape of export activity is considered as a structured system of interconnected institutions and institutional arrangements that shape the rules, constraints, and opportunities for exporting goods and services to international markets. The article systematizes the main elements of this landscape, including legislative, customs-tariff, tax, and administrative mechanisms of state regulation. Special attention is paid to the analysis of free, licensed, and quota-based export regimes, as well as the application of minimum export prices as an instrument of non-tariff regulation.The transformation of the institutional environment of exports under wartime conditions is examined, particularly changes in tax and customs legislation, the introduction of the export security regime, and the strengthening of currency and tax control. Using the example of sunflower oil and sunflower seed exports, the study illustrates the specifics of institutional conditions for goods with different levels of value added and varying degrees of state intervention.The processes of harmonization of the national institutional environment with international and European regulatory systems, in particular the HS and the EU CN, are analyzed separately, as they constitute an important prerequisite for Ukraine’s integration into the single economic space of the European Union. It is substantiated that under conditions of armed aggression, institutions perform a dual function: on the one hand, they ensure the adaptation of export activity to crisis challenges, and on the other hand, they act as an active factor in transforming the economic environment. The study concludes that an effective institutional export landscape is critically important for preserving export potential, stabilizing the national economy, and maintaining Ukraine’s position in the international division of labor.

The article addresses decentralization of public power as a complex, multi-dimensional process that goes beyond administrative restructuring and involves profound institutional, political, and social transformations. In contemporary public administration research, decentralization is increasingly interpreted not merely as a redistribution of competences between levels of government, but as a structural change that reshapes relations between the state, local self-government, and civil society. This shift significantly expands the analytical field and necessitates a reconsideration of methodological approaches used to study decentralization, particularly in countries undergoing systemic transformation such as Ukraine. In the context of democratic transition, European integration, and post-war recovery, decentralization has become a key institutional framework for strengthening local governance, enhancing public participation, and fostering the development of civil society. At the same time, the diversity of theoretical interpretations of decentralization -ranging from classical administrative and fiscal theories to institutional, neo-institutional, governance-based, and participatory approaches -complicates the formation of a coherent research methodology. This fragmentation often leads to selective or partial interpretations of decentralization processes, limiting the explanatory capacity of empirical studies and reducing their applicability for public policy design. The purpose of this article is to substantiate a comprehensive methodology for studying contemporary theories of decentralization in the context of civil society development. To achieve this purpose, the article pursues several objectives: (1) to systematize modern theoretical approaches to decentralization within public administration and related disciplines; (2) to analyze how civil society development is conceptualized within these theories; (3) to identify methodological tools suitable for integrated analysis of decentralization and civil society interactions; and (4) to determine methodological limitations and directions for further research. The methodological framework of the study is grounded in the theory of public administration, institutional and neo-institutional theory, civil society theory, and systems theory. The research employs general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, as well as comparative analysis, structural-logical modeling, and theoretical generalization. These methods make it possible to identify the internal logic of contemporary decentralization theories, to compare their explanatory assumptions, and to assess their analytical relevance for studying civil society development at the local and regional levels. The article demonstrates that classical administrative and fiscal theories of decentralization primarily focus on efficiency, optimization of public service delivery, and resource allocation, often overlooking the social dimension of governance. While these approaches remain important for analyzing functional and financial aspects of decentralization, they provide limited insight into the dynamics of civic engagement, public participation, and the formation of local democratic institutions. As a result, their methodological potential is insufficient for comprehensive analysis of decentralization as a catalyst for civil society development. Institutional and neo-institutional theories significantly expand the analytical scope by emphasizing formal and informal rules, norms, and incentives that shape interactions between public authorities and societal actors. Within this framework, decentralization is viewed as a process of institutional reconfiguration that creates new opportunities for civic participation, accountability, and collective action at the local level. The article highlights that these theories allow for a more nuanced understanding of how decentralization influences civil society development through institutional design, legal frameworks, and governance arrangements. Governance-oriented and participatory approaches further deepen the analysis by conceptualizing decentralization as a shift from hierarchical state control to network-based governance involving multiple stakeholders. From this perspective, civil society is not merely an external actor responding to decentralization reforms, but an integral component of decentralized governance systems. The article argues that these approaches are particularly relevant for studying contemporary decentralization in Ukraine, where local communities increasingly act as co-producers of public policies and services.At the same time, the article identifies methodological challenges associated with governance and participatory theories, including difficulties in operationalizing key concepts, measuring levels of civic engagement, and distinguishing causal relationships between decentralization and civil society outcomes.These limitations underscore the need for a balanced methodological approach that combines normative, institutional, and empirical perspectives.

The transformation of rural governance in China under the project system presents a paradox: while state-led projects intensify administrative penetration, new forms of local autonomy continue to emerge. This study examines how rural elites—returnees with urban experience—mediate between bureaucratic control and community agency to reconstruct village autonomy in project-based rural revitalization. Based on a qualitative single-case study of L Village in Shanxi Province, drawing on semi-structured interviews and project documents, the findings reveal that village autonomy in L Village has evolved into a negotiated form through three interlinked mechanisms: resource translation, institutional bricolage, and symbolic legitimation. Rural elites act as embedded intermediaries who reinterpret bureaucratic procedures in locally meaningful ways, reassemble formal and informal rules to create flexibility, and deploy moral-cultural narratives to legitimise authority. These processes transform external control into adaptive governance capacity, producing a hybrid condition of negotiated autonomy—a relational mode of village autonomy that coexists with state control. The study contributes to debates on rural governance and state–society relations by extending Evans' notion of embedded autonomy to the micro-village level. It argues that the project system relocates village autonomy to bureaucratic–local interfaces, where negotiation becomes the defining feature of grassroots governance in contemporary rural China.

The article analyses the phenomenon of covert (passive) aggression within the professional environment of the civil service as a specific form of conflict behaviour characterised by a discrepancy between outwardly correct, formally loyal interaction and an internal experience of hostility, dissatisfaction, and an intention to exert indirect psychological influence on others. It is demonstrated that under heightened requirements for ethical conduct, impartiality, observance of hierarchical subordination, and standards of public behaviour, passive aggression may function as a «latent mechanism» for expressing frustration, disagreement, and resistance to managerial decisions without overt confrontation. The study elucidates the psychological antecedents and mechanisms of passive-aggressive manifestations, including avoidance of direct conflict, fear of adverse sanctions, diminished capacity for open position-assertion, and the desire to minimise personal responsibility for escalating tension. In this context, typical instruments of indirect influence are examined: ironic framing and sarcastic remarks, deliberate delays in task completion, selective «forgetting» of agreements, covert sabotage, demonstrative indifference, and communicative neglect. It is shown that the systematic reproduction of such practices erodes trust, distorts horizontal coordination, generates chronic tension, and, consequently, diminishes the organisational performance of public authorities. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between covert aggression, organisational unpreparedness for social diversity, and practices of latent discrimination. It is specified that bias towards «otherness» (in particular, towards persons with non-normative sexual identity and gender affiliation) may manifest through microaggressions — «jokes», insinuations, exclusion from informal communication, devaluation of professional contributions, and selective application of informal rules. Such actions often lack the features of a direct breach of internal regulations; however, in practice, they reproduce inequality, reinforce stigmatisation, and increase the conflict potential of the workplace. The article substantiates that the legal and ethical requirements of the civil service (principles of non-discrimination, respect for human dignity, integrity, and accountability) require instrumental reinforcement through applied managerial measures: systematic staff training in emotional self-regulation, conflict-management competence, cultural sensitivity, and constructive communication, as well as the introduction of early-response procedures and mediation practices in cases of protracted intra-organisational tensions.

Metanorms are informal rules about how to react to social norm violations. Since metanorms vary across groups, individuals must adapt their metanorms to match their local social environment's expectations. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which individuals learn and update their metanorms. The present study sought to investigate if individuals can use social observation, here observing the punitive behaviors of others, to adapt their metanorms. In an online task, 314 Canadian participants were asked to select a reaction (inaction, gossip, exclusion or confrontation) to a set of social norm violations before and after observing others who mostly used one type of punishment when faced with new social norm violations. The results suggest that individuals use social observation to adapt their metanorms. Indeed, participants increased their use of the punishment they observed after observing others. This adaptation was characterized by a generalization effect suggesting that metanorm adaptation operates at an abstract level to identify the general patterns of reactions within a given social environment. These findings provide initial evidence that metanorms can be shaped through social learning, opening new research directions to explore how this process varies across cultures, demographic groups and real-world social contexts.

Workplace Norms and Compliance with Health and Safety Regulations in Healthcare Institutions in Akure, Ondo State

According to Radaelli, Europeanization refers to ‘processes of (a) construction (b) diffusion and (c) institutionalization of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, styles, ‘ways of doing things’ and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the making of EU decisions and then incorporated in the logic of domestic discourse, identities, political structures and public policies.’ European Union has always exerted a powerful attraction for the candidate countries and by means of conditionality managed to shape the aspirations of these countries. In the case of the Central and Eastern European countries the enlargement perspective elicited a multifaceted and intense set of adjustment processes with the aim of socializing applicant countries into the values and standards of the EU thus enabling them to achieve ’democracy by convergence’. The Balkan region has always been part of Europe, nevertheless the situation in the region remains complex and in many respects problematic. Europeanization in the Balkans would mean structural transformation, modernization and adjustment to the advanced European models in areas such as good governance, economy and the rule of law. The thoroughness of these processes becomes all the more important especially if we take into consideration the increased politicization of the enlargement process. The present contribution attempts to assess the EU ability to shape the transformation of Western Balkan states.

Background/Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health challenge, driven in part by how antibiotics are accessed, distributed, and used within complex value chains. In peri-urban India, these supply chains involve a range of formal and informal actors and practices, making them a critical yet underexamined focus for antimicrobial stewardship efforts. While much research has focused on the manufacturing and regulatory end, less is known about how antibiotics reach consumers in rural and peri-urban settings. This study aimed to map the human antibiotic value chain in West Bengal, India, and to analyse how formal and informal governance structures influence antibiotic use and stewardship. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in two Gram Panchayats in South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 31 key informants, including informal providers, medical representatives, wholesalers, pharmacists, and regulators. Interviews explored the structure of the antibiotic value chain, actor relationships, and regulatory mechanisms. Data were analysed thematically using a value chain governance framework and NVivo 12 for coding. Results: The antibiotic value chain in rural West Bengal is highly fragmented and governed by overlapping formal and informal rules. Multiple actors—many holding dual or unofficial roles—operate across four to five tiers of distribution. Informal providers play a central role in both prescription and dispensing, often without legal licences but with strong community trust. Informal norms, credit systems, and market incentives shape prescribing behaviour, while formal regulatory enforcement is inconsistent or absent. Conclusions: Efforts to promote antibiotic stewardship must move beyond binary formal–informal distinctions and target governance structures across the entire value chain. Greater attention should be paid to actors higher up the chain, including wholesalers and pharmaceutical marketing networks, to improve stewardship and access simultaneously. This study highlights how fragmented governance structures, overlapping actor roles, and uneven regulation within antibiotic value chains create critical gaps that must be addressed to design effective antimicrobial stewardship strategies.