Sustaining Digital India at the Grassroots: An Empirical Analysis of Common Service Centres and Rural Digital Entrepreneurship.

Common Service Centres (CSCs) operate as front-line delivery points for e-governance and digital services in rural India. As the Digital India program matures, questions about the long-term viability of CSCs—especially the business model sustained by Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs)—have become pivotal. This study empirically examines the determinants of CSC profitability and sustainability using primary survey data from 200 VLEs across five districts of Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Ujjain, Dewas). Guided by the Resource-Based View and Institutional Theory, we test how Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Institutional Support (IS), Digital Skills (DS), Operational Challenges (CH), and Customer Satisfaction (CS) influence Profitability (PI) and Sustainability (SI). Data were analyzed using SPSS v26: descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, principal component analysis (PCA), multiple linear regression, and one-way ANOVA. Results show that EO, IS, DS and CS positively and significantly affect SI, whereas CH negatively impacts sustainability and profitability. The regression model explains approximately 71.7% of the variance in sustainability (Adjusted R² ≈ 0.705). Customer satisfaction emerged as the strongest predictor (standardized β ≈ 0.30), followed by institutional support and entrepreneurial orientation. ANOVA indicates significant district-wise differences in profitability (p < 0.05), with urbanized districts outperforming rural ones. We discuss theoretical implications for extending RBV to hybrid public–private digital enterprises, and practical implications for targeted capacity building, infrastructure investment, and policy design. Recommendations include structured training, performance-linked incentives, and localized infrastructure interventions to ensure CSCs function as sustainable rural entrepreneurship hubs.

Keywords:Common Service Centre, Village Level Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Orientation, Institutional Support, Digital Skills, Sustainability, India