How Can Digital Villages Improve Basic Public Services Delivery in Rural Areas? Evidence from 1840 Counties in China

Abstract

Digital transformation is spreading from urban to rural areas, and the construction of digital villages has become a key growth point for rural sustainable development globally. Digital villages improve the level of basic public services delivery in rural areas via the penetration of digital technology. However, few studies have empirically investigated the theoretical mechanisms underlying the impact of digital villages on various aspects of rural basic public services. To address these gaps, this study investigates the impact mechanisms of digital villages on rural basic public services delivery in terms of accessibility, equity, agility, holistic nature and participation. Using 1840 counties in China as the research sample, this study applies the entropy method to extract a composite index of basic public services and performs correlation, regression, and heterogeneity analyses to examine the effects of digital villages on basic public services delivery. Empirical analysis results show that the construction of digital villages is positively associated with the level of basic public services in rural areas. Meanwhile, heterogeneity analysis results confirms that this relationship is mainly observed in eastern counties but not observed in central and western counties. These findings provide a basis for using digital inclusion to improve basic public services delivery in rural areas and achieve balanced development across regions.

1. Introduction

1.1. The Development and Importance of Digital Villages

In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development published in 2015, the United Nations (UN) suggested that sustainable development planning and governance should also focus on rural areas in addition to cities. In this regard, the quality and inclusiveness of rural development determine whether the UN Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved. With the emergence of the digital age, new information communication technologies (ICT) are driving regions toward sustainable development. Nevertheless, rural areas are likely to be left behind and marginalised in the next phase of technological innovation, given that these technologies are constructed using urban and neoliberal approaches [1]. Therefore, a large digital divide has emerged between urban and rural areas worldwide, placing rural areas at risk of becoming ‘digital ghettos’. Bridging this digital divide has become a global challenge for sustainable development. Countries around the world, especially those with a high degree of digital transformation maturity, have begun to shift their digital transformation focus from urban to rural areas. By building digital villages, these nations aim to narrow the digital divide, give rural residents better access to the Internet and digital services, and enhance the capacity for governance, public service provision, and economic development in rural areas [2].

1.2. The Importance of Basic Public Services Delivery in Rural Areas

Promoting the accessibility, equity and affordability of basic public services in rural areas is essential for rural sustainable development [3,4]. This is particularly evident in China, the largest developing country. Despite China’s rapid urbanisation in recent years, its rural resident population still accounts for 34.78% (491.04 million) of its total population in 2022 [5]. China still faces a huge gap between urban and rural development, as evidenced by the poor rural infrastructure, generally low farmer incomes, and lagging basic public service systems in its rural areas. Consequently, the quantity and quality of its basic public services delivery still fail to meet the livelihood needs of rural residents. Since 2017, China has implemented a precise poverty alleviation strategy and a rural revitalisation plan to help rural residents escape absolute poverty through a variety of means, including rural industrial poverty alleviation, employment transfer, infrastructure renewal, education and social assistance. Improving the coverage and quality of basic public services in rural areas has become a core element of China’s rural revitalisation plan. In September 2018, the Chinese central government released the ‘Strategic Plan for the Revitalization of Rural Areas (2018–2022)’, which emphasised the importance of increasing public education, medical and health care, social security and other resources in rural areas and proposed gradual improvements to the basic public service system by aiming for universal coverage, universal sharing and urban–rural integration and by further improving the level of basic public services delivery in rural areas by 2022 [6].

1.3. The Forward-Looking Role of Digital Villages in Basic Public Services Delivery

Basic public services are a subset of public services that meet the public’s most basic needs for survival and development. They are characterized by universality, balance, inclusiveness, and equity. The traditional basic public services delivery is largely limited by regional economic and social development, geographical location, transportation convenience and government capacity. For rural areas, the limitations of the above conditions have caused various countries and regions to struggle with the plight of insufficient delivery of basic rural public services [7,8,9]. With the dramatic increase in the use of mobile communication technology and smartphones in rural areas, the construction of digital villages is anticipated to contribute to increased accessibility, openness and timeliness of basic public services delivery by making these services available to rural residents through mobile Internet [10]. The diffusion and spillover effects of digital technology and mobile Internet help the governments provide basic public services to rural residents online at low cost and high efficiency, thus enabling digital villages to break the limitations of resources, geography, space and time. For example, online medical services are included in the digital villages platform. Rural residents can use telemedicine to obtain instant services, significantly improving the accessibility, timeliness and quality of medical care [11,12]. Rural residents can save travel expenses and time, reducing the cost of medical care.

To enhance basic public services delivery in rural areas, China’s central government has made the construction of digital villages a priority in recent years. In 2018, the digital village strategy was suggested for implementation in the “Opinions on Implementing the Rural Revitalization Strategy” published by China’s central government [13]. In 2019, China’s central government released the ‘Outline of the Digital Village Development Strategy’, proposing to ‘focus on the diffusion effect of information technology innovation, the spillover effect of information and knowledge and the inclusive effect of digital technology release’ [14]. In January 2022, the ‘Action Plan for the Development of the Digital Village (2022–2025)’ included the ‘Public Services Efficiency Improvement Initiative’ as a key action [15]. Therefore, promoting the digital village strategy is inextricably linked to improving basic public services delivery in rural areas.

1.4. Limitations of Existing Studies and Issues Raised

Despite growing interest in the academic community regarding digital villages and rural basic public services, most discussions have primarily focused on describing their current status and challenges. However, there has been relatively little attention given to understanding the specific relationship and impact mechanisms between digital villages and the delivery of basic public services. A macro-level empirical analysis of the relationship between digital villages and rural basic public services delivery is also lacking. To fill these gaps, this paper takes 1840 counties in China as the research sample, combines theoretical and empirical analyses and thoroughly verifies the relationship between digital villages and rural basic public services delivery to reveal its theoretical mechanism from the perspectives of the digital governance theory. Three questions are then raised: How do digital villages affect rural basic public services delivery at the theoretical level? Are digital villages positively associated with rural basic public services delivery at the empirical level? Is this relationship heterogeneous across regions? This research is expected to provide a theoretical foundation and evidence-based basis for digital villages to enhance rural basic public services delivery.

2. Literature Review

2.1. The Concept of Digital Villages

Following the integration of digital technology development and rural development, the concepts of smart villages and digital villages have gradually emerged in rural development practice and theoretical research. To address the issues posed by population ageing, low business productivity, and uneven regional development in rural areas, the European Union (EU) launched the ‘Smart Villages Actions’ in 2017. Smart villages are defined as innovative spaces that leverage knowledge-based networks to improve rural development levels through the use of existing resources and the application of digital communication technologies [16]. EU member states have responded positively to this initiative by focusing their smart village construction efforts on ensuring a comprehensive coverage of broadband infrastructure, digital public services and digital innovation skills in rural areas, covering key areas of sustainable development, such as the lives of rural residents, industrial revitalisation, green development and socio-economic development [17,18,19]. The ‘Outline of the Digital Village Development Strategy’ released by China’s central government in 2019 defined digital villages as ‘the development and transformation process of agricultural and rural modernisation that is endogenous along with the application of networking, informatisation and digitisation in the economic and social development of agriculture and rural areas as well as the improvement of farmers’ modern information skills’ [20]. The EU and China’s concepts and designs on rural digital transformation are the most representative digital village programmes in the world. A comparison between these designs reveals that the concepts of smart and digital villages are essentially the same across countries, and both of these concepts emphasise the importance of continuously strengthening the breadth and maturity of the use of digital technologies in rural areas and empowering the comprehensive and sustainable development of villages in the economic, social, political and cultural fields.

2.2. The Concept of Basic Public Services

Originating from new public services theory, public services is a primary responsibility of modern governments that emphasises the service orientation of the government and the rights of citizens; the intangible products and services supplied by the government aim to benefit citizens by serving their survival and life needs and by integrating government departments and market forces [21]. Basic public services are a subset of public services that ensure the survival and development of citizens; these services are typically regarded as pure public goods whose quantity and quality of delivery are the primary responsibility of the government [20]. Basic public services, which serve as a bottom-up guarantee for all citizens’ survival and living conditions, play a key role in improving their well-being. According to the UN, ‘water, food, energy, income security, health services, and other essential public goods and services’ are essential human rights [4]. These services primarily consist of basic public education, basic medical care, basic social security and basic social services [22,23].

2.3. Digital Technology and Rural Sustainable Development

Compared with urban areas, rural areas face severely negative constraints, including depopulation, low accessibility, digital illiteracy, poor infrastructure and environmental pollution [1]. Academics have extensively explored the relationship between digital technology and sustainable rural development, focusing on the “digital divide” that exists between urban and rural areas, the impact of digital technology on economic development, and the associated challenges. As early as 2003, scholars began investigating the digital infrastructure in rural areas, and their findings pointed towards the potential application of ICT in rural development; however, digital development in rural areas is hindered by human resource deficiencies [24]. Prieger (2013) empirically examined the potential for mobile technology to be an engine of growth for rural economic development. In their regression analysis, they observed a digital divide in the United States regarding mobile broadband availability and adoption [25]. Salemink et al. (2017) conducted a systematic review of 157 papers on digital and rural development in developed countries and observed an increasing disparity in the quality of digital infrastructure between urban and rural areas [25]. Moreover, they emphasized that lower degrees of education and skills in rural areas negatively affect the diffusion of technology and identified telecommunication markets, technology in rural areas, regional development and policy and regulation as the main drivers of the digital divide.

In recent years, the effects of digital villages on rural sustainable development have gradually received scholarly attention, with related research mostly using literature reviews, policy analyses and case studies to explore this topic. Socio-economic data show a correlation between weak Internet access and rural decline. To solve this dilemma, some countries or areas have resorted to the concept of ‘digital villages’ development, utilising digital technology to empower rural governance [8], rural e-commerce [26] and rural finance [27,28] to help rural residents increase their income [29], upgrade their consumption [30] and improve their quality of life [8]. A review of rural development policies and practices related to digital villages at the regional level revealed that these villages play important roles in upgrading agricultural production methods [26,31], alleviating poverty [32], promoting climate and environmental governance [7], achieving rural economic diversification and reducing the urban–rural divide [33,34]. Nonetheless, only few studies have examined how these villages can meet the requirements of rural residents for basic public services from a citizen-centred perspective.

The construction of digital villages is the key to the sustainable development of China’s rural areas in the future and has become a hot topic in academia. The current qualitative research on China’s digital villages mainly focuses on the policy development, content framework, and operation mechanism of digital village construction. The research methods mainly include theoretical construction, case study, and policy analysis. Based on relevant theoretical exploration, some scholars have gradually shifted their research focus to quantitative analysis and constructed some evaluation index systems for China’s digital village construction [35,36,37]. The development of China’s digital villages is still in its infancy, with varying degrees of development between regions. There are relatively large differences in location conditions, technological levels, economic and social development, and resource and environmental conditions between various regions in China, which has led to regional imbalances in the construction of digital villages [38,39]. Specifically, China’s eastern region has shown a higher level of digital rural construction, while the western region has less mature infrastructure and is slower to adopt digital rural construction [38,40]. Related studies have analyzed the effects of the development of digital villages in China from specific perspectives. These studies have verified the role of digital villages in improving agricultural scale operations [41], promoting rural economic development [39,42], bolstering agroecological efficiency [43], narrowing the urban–rural income gap, and reducing carbon emissions [44].

2.4. Digital Technology and Rural Public Services

Studies on the application of digital technologies in rural areas have shifted from the rural sustainable development macro-level to the rural residents’ well-being micro-level. Specifically, urban practices have highlighted the growing significance of digital technologies in public services, and this positive effect is expected to expand towards rural areas, where some scholars have started to study the effect of digital technologies on public services. From the standpoint of the general law, firstly, the application of digital technology encourages positive interactions between the government and citizens, provides citizens with convenient communication channels and reduces their cost of participation [10]. Secondly, digital technology can extract and analyse potential information to help governments better understand public opinion and preferences, thus enhancing the quality and efficiency of their public services delivery [45,46,47]. Thirdly, digitised public services can improve transparency. Yang et al., (2020) pointed out that the ability of social media to collaborate and monitor can improve the public services environment [10]. Fourthly, digital technology is an effective tool for public services delivery during epidemics, and scholars have already pointed out through case studies that the content of services based on digital platforms can be expanded from epidemic prevention and control to daily public services, thus facilitating the transition in the provision of public services from restoration resilience to change resilience [48].

2.5. Summary of Literature

The findings of previous studies on the application of digital technology to enhance basic public services delivery in rural areas provide important references and lessons for this paper, but some research gaps remain. On one hand, existing research has mainly concentrated on the rural–urban ’digital divide’ and how the digital economy affects economic growth, whilst scholars specialising in digital villages have mainly explored these villages’ impact on rural sustainable development by conducting case studies. However, the effects of digital technology on public services in the context of rural revitalisation has received scant research attention. On the other hand, studies on public services have mainly investigated the status quo and dilemmas faced in rural basic public services delivery in the context of digital transformation and primarily relied on qualitative approaches to understand the impact of digital technology on basic public services. However, few papers have thoroughly examined the impact mechanism of digital villages on specific aspects of basic public services in rural areas, and empirical research at the macro level remains lacking. To fill these gaps, this study takes 1840 counties in China as the research object and combines theoretical and empirical analyses to verify the connection between digital villages and rural basic public services delivery.

3. Theoretical Analysis and Research Hypotheses

Digital governance theory proposes to promote the transformation of governance paradigm through reintegration, demand-based holism and digital transformation, especially in the field of public services delivery, to improve the accessibility, equity, agility, holistic and participation of public services [49,50]. Therefore, this section explores the theoretical mechanism of using digital villages to improve the accessibility, equity, agility, holistic and participation of basic rural public services based on digital governance theory. The purpose of this section is to determine how digital villages can improve the supply of basic rural public services at the theoretical level.

3.1. Digital Villages Are Positively Associated with the Accessibility of Rural Basic Public Services

Digital villages help break through geographical, demographic and economic limitations, alleviate resource constraints, effectively address the issues of information asymmetry and scattered rural public services [11] and enhance the accessibility of basic public services. Following the implementation of the digital villages strategy in China, various forms of digital infrastructure, such as broadband and 4G/5G mobile communication base stations, have been widely deployed in rural areas. Smartphone ownership rates have also peaked in these areas along with the popularisation of low-cost mobile Internet. These technologies help rural residents access basic public services, including health, education and social security, via the Internet. Rural residents can also easily access these services using smart applications, such as apps for government, smart hospitals and distance education [9,47].

3.2. Digital Villages Are Positively Associated with the Equity of Rural Basic Public Services

The digital divide between urban and rural areas is the main source of inequity in digital public services delivery [3]. The development of digital villages means that the focus of digital transformation has shifted from urban to rural areas. This will help rural areas that have previously lagged behind in digital transformation to gradually catch up with the digital age, thereby alleviating the digital divide between urban and rural areas. As a national strategy, digital villages have received much government investment in hopes of bridging the urban–rural digital divide and enhancing digital inclusion, thus allowing rural residents to access digital public services and improving the equity of these services.

3.3. Digital Villages Are Positively Associated with the Agility of Rural Basic Public Services

Agile governance emphasises the continuous response of governance activities to changes in the environment to improve their level of adaptability [51]. For basic public services, agility means that providers can respond quickly and accurately to the needs of the public. Digital villages can extract latent information about service use, thus helping grassroots governments to better comprehend the demands of rural residents and use this new understanding to adjust the content, quality and delivery of public services [46]. The precise delivery of personalised basic public services to rural residents is another important feature of digital villages. These villages enable a continuous interaction amongst rural residents, public services providers, smart devices and their current environments to contextually meet public service needs, to feed rural residents’ needs back to the providers promptly and to allow these residents to choose what and how they wish to receive digital services [45]. This interaction also improves the government’s responsiveness to rural residents’ needs, improves its precision in matching supply with demand and helps achieve an agile delivery of basic public services.

3.4. Digital Villages Are Positively Associated with the Holistic Nature of Rural Basic Public Services

Digital governance theory suggests that the digital transformation of the government can leverage data convergence and technological empowerment to break the decentralisation and specialisation limitations faced by government departments since the New Public Management movement and to provide integrated, one-stop public services to the public in a holistic manner via integrated digital platforms [49,52]. Following the development of digital villages, such transformation has extended from urban to rural areas. On one hand, digital villages create low-cost, easily accessible, and instantaneous communication channels, thus breaking down the ‘data silos’ and operational barriers amongst different levels and types of government departments and greatly facilitating cross-sectoral collaboration amongst governments and civil servants in rural areas [10]. On the other hand, the construction of digital villages integrates public services into digital platforms, thus providing rural residents with integrated digital services in health care, education, agriculture and social security at home or in digital service centres [9].

3.5. Digital Villages Are Positively Associated with Participation in Rural Basic Public Services

Public participation in the whole process of designing, implementing and improving basic public services delivery is an important feature of a modernised public service system. Digital villages help promote the interaction between the government and society and between the government and public, thus increasing the participation of the private and public sectors in the delivery of basic public services in rural areas. The construction of digital villages also brings enterprises, social organisations, research institutions, universities and other institutions into the basic public services delivery community. Governments can attract social capital towards the construction of digital villages through services procurement, government–social capital cooperation and loan interest discounts and jointly offer rural residents convenient access to basic public services [53]. Encouraging the participation of rural residents in the whole basic public services delivery process is another important role of digital villages. These villages use digital platforms to promote citizen participation in decision making, enhance information and services and raise standards of credibility, accountability and transparency, thus stimulating individual participation in rural governance, promoting a paradigm shift in rural governance from its traditional sense and transforming rural residents from passive recipients of basic public services to active participants and co-creators [7].

This study makes the case that digital villages play a key role in rural basic public services delivery based on the discussion above. The following hypothesis is thus proposed.

 Hypothesis 1: 

Digital villages are positively associated with rural basic public services delivery.

3.6. The Regional Heterogeneity of the Relationship between Digital Villages and Rural Basic Public Services

China’s economic development, resource endowment, urbanisation and technological innovation generally follow a declining pattern from east to west [33]. The construction of digital villages heavily depends on the support of technical, economic, social, institutional, information infrastructure and other resources, and the focus of digital villages in different regions may also vary, thus leading to heterogeneity in the influence of these villages on rural basic public services delivery across these regions. Considering the diminishing level of social and economic development in China’s eastern, central and western areas, this study divides China’s 1840 countries into the eastern, central and western regions and examines the effects of digital villages on the level of basic public services delivery in these regions. The following hypothesis is then proposed.

 Hypothesis 2: 

There is regional heterogeneity in the impact of digital villages on rural basic public services delivery.

4. Materials and Methods

4.1. Data Sources and Sample Selection

Level of digital villages development. The level of digital villages development was measured by the digital villages development index derived from the ‘County Digital Villages Index (2018)’ report published by the Institute of New Rural Development of Peking University in conjunction with Ali Research Institute, which covers 1880 counties and county-level cities in China (excluding municipal districts or special districts). The statistics used in this report are dated 2018.

Level of rural basic public services. Based on the relevant data involving various aspects of basic public services (e.g., general public budget revenue, number of students in general secondary and elementary schools and number of beds in healthcare facilities) in the ‘China County Statistical Yearbook (2019)’ published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the composite index of rural basic public services (RBPS) was synthesised via the entropy method. These data cover 2080 counties (including municipal districts) and cover the statistical year 2018.

Sample Selection. Based on the 1880 Chinese counties covered in the ‘County Digital Villages Index (2018)’ report, the final number of counties in the research sample is 1840 after excluding those counties with missing data on basic public services.

4.2. Variables Measurement

Independent variable. The independent variable, digital villages index (DVI), was measured following the approach described in the ‘County Digital Villages Index (2018)’ report. The report measured the DVI of 1880 counties in 2018 based on the existing research definitions of digital villages, covering four aspects: rural digital infrastructure, rural economic digitisation, rural governance digitisation and rural life digitisation. The process mainly included three steps: data standardisation processing, determining index weights and testing the reasonableness of the index construction. To scientifically and reasonably determine the weight of the indicator system, this report adopts the Delphi method and consults 16 experts from various professional fields of agriculture and rural areas, including various universities and research institutions in China, as well as many researchers and senior experts from relevant departments of Alibaba Group. The data comes from Alibaba Group and its partner businesses and ecosystem partners, China National Statistical Yearbook, and online public big data. This study uses publicly released report and its data (obtained from: http://www.aliresearch.com/ch/information/informationdetails?articleCode=142536283581976576&type=%E6%96%B0%E9%97%BB (accessed on 19 September 2024)). This report only contains the evaluation results, not the original data. The final county digital villages indicator system contains 12 secondary indexes and 29 specific indexes as shown in

Table 1. County digital villages indicator system.

Level 1 Indicators	Level 2 Indicators	Specific Indicators
Rural Digital Infrastructure Index (0.27)	Information infrastructure index (0.30)	Mobile device accesses per 10,000 people
	Digital Financial Infrastructure Index (0.30)	Breadth of digital financial infrastructure coverage
		Depth of use of digital financial infrastructure
	Digital Business Landmark Index (0.20)	Percentage of online self-registered commercial landmark POIs out of the total number of commercial landmark POIs crawled per unit area
	Basic data resource system index (0.20)	Dynamic Monitoring and Response System (DMRS) applications
Rural Economy Digitization Index (0.40)	Digital production index (0.40)	Construction of the National Modern Agriculture Demonstration Project
		National New Industrialization Demonstration Base Construction
		Percentage of Taobao villages among all administrative villages
	Digital Supply Chain Index (0.30)	Logistics network points per 10,000 people
		Logistics timeframe for receiving parcels
	Digital Marketing Index (0.20)	E-commerce sales of agricultural products per CNY 100 million yuan of primary industry value added
		With or without live sales
		Whether it is a comprehensive demonstration county of e-commerce in rural areas
		Number of online businesses per 10,000 people
	Digital Finance Index (0.10)	Digitalization of financial inclusion
Rural Governance Digitalization Index (0.14)	Governance instruments index (1.00)	Number of government business use users per 10,000 Alipay real-name users
		Percentage of townships with WeChat public service platforms among all townships
Rural Life Digitalization Index (0.19)	Digital Consumption Index (0.28)	Online consumption per CNY 100 million yuan of total retail sales of social consumer goods
		E-commerce sales per CNY 100 million yuan of GDP
	Digital Literacy, Tourism, Education and Health Index (0.52)	Per capita top 100 entertainment video app usage
		Top 100 entertainment video categories per installed APP device Average length of APP usage
		Per capita top 100 education and training app usage
		Top 100 education and training categories per installed APP device Average usage time of APP
		Number of recorded attractions on online travel platforms per 10,000 people
		Cumulative total number of reviews of recorded attractions on online travel platforms per 10,000 people
		Number of physicians from the county enrolled in network health platforms per 10,000 people
	Digital Life Services Index (0.20)	Number of Alipay users using online lifestyle services per 10,000 Alipay users
		Number of online consumer orders per capita
		Per capita spending on online life

Data sources: New Rural Development Institute of Peking University. County Digital Villages Index (2018) [R]. 2020. http://www.saas.pku.edu.cn/docs/2020-09/20200929171934282586.pdf (accessed on 19 September 2024).

.

Dependent variable. The composite index of rural basic public services (RBPS) was used as the dependent variable. Starting from the concept of basic public services, combining the index system designed by related studies [22,23,54,55] and considering the availability of county-level data, this study selected the data related to four categories of basic public services, namely, public investment, basic public education, basic medical and health care and basic social services. The weight of the indicator system and were created employing the entropy method. This study also drew on existing indicators to evaluate basic public services. Specifically, general public budget revenue per 10,000 people was selected as an indicator of public investment. General public budget revenue is one of the most important sources of funds for basic public services. Related studies also includes local government public budget revenue as one of the indicators for basic public services such as education, medical care, and social security [23,56,57,58]. The two indicators of general secondary school students per 10,000 people and the number of elementary school students per 10,000 people were used to reflect the scale of compulsory education as an indicator of basic public education. Basic medical and health care was expressed as the number of beds in healthcare facilities per 10,000 people. Specific indicators of basic social services were formed using the number of various social welfare adoption units and beds per 10,000 people, and the term ‘adoption units’ was used to refer to welfare institutions, such as social welfare homes and elderly adoption institutions. The specific indicator system is explained in

Table 2. Indicator system for the level of basic public services in rural areas.

Level 1 Indicators	Level 2 Indicators	Specific Indicators
Composite index of rural basic public services	public investment	general public budget revenue per 10,000 people
	basic public education	the number of general secondary school students per 10,000 people
		the number of elementary school students per 10,000 people
	basic medical and health care	the number of beds in healthcare facilities per 10,000 people
	basic social services	the number of various social welfare adoption units per 10,000 people
		the number of various social welfare adoption beds per 10,000 people

.

Control variables. Population, economic development and industrialisation serve as the resource and technological bases for the level of digital villages development and rural basic public services delivery [3,23,55,59]. Accordingly, they were employed in this study as control variables. Meanwhile, the number of registered population was used to measure population size, GDP per capita was used to measure the level of economic development and the value-added of the secondary industry as a proportion of GDP was used to express the level of industrialisation. The data were sourced from the ‘Statistical Yearbook of China’s Counties (2019)’ released by the NBS.

4.3. Data Analysis Methods

MS Office Excel 2019 and SPSS 24.0 were used to enter and organise the relevant data, ArcMap 10.8 was used to draw maps to show the spatial distribution of DVI and composite index of rural basic public services, and SPSS 24.0 was used to perform descriptive statistical analysis, entropy method, correlation analysis and general linear regression analysis to understand the relationship between the levels of county digital villages development and rural basic public services and to verify the effects of the former on the latter.

5. Empirical Analysis and Results

5.1. Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to examine the basic situation of digital villages and the level of rural basic public services. The results in

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of variables.

Variables	Number of Cases	Realm	Minimum Value	Maximum Values	Average Value	Standard Deviation
DVI	1840	81.42	6.38	87.80	50.23	12.15
General public budget revenue per 10,000 people (CNY 100 million yuan)	1840	10.91	0.02	10.93	0.32	0.50
Number of general secondary school students per 10,000 people (persons)	1840	1761.25	65.57	1826.82	450.21	138.19
Number of elementary school students per 10,000 people (persons)	1840	1780.90	86.48	1867.38	690.27	238.52
Number of beds in healthcare facilities per 10,000 people (beds)	1840	236.82	10.57	247.39	44.69	17.97
Number of various social welfare adoption units per 10,000 people (units)	1840	4.86	0.01	4.86	0.39	0.45
Number of various social welfare adoption beds per 10,000 people (beds)	1840	231.02	0.28	231.30	33.34	25.08
Number of registered population (10,000 people)	1840	246.66	0.78	247.44	48.68	37.12
GDP per capita (CNY 100 million yuan)	1840	45.65	0.54	46.19	4.19	3.74
Value added of the secondary industry as a proportion of GDP	1840	0.83	0.01	0.85	0.39	0.14

show a wide range of values and standard deviations for the data related to these indicators between counties, reflecting significant disparities in digital village development and the level of basic public services across these counties.

5.2. Entropy Method

To measure the level of rural basic public services in each county, six specific indicators were used to constitute the composite variable, and the entropy method was applied to calculate the weights of each constituent indicator and RBPS.

Table 4. Results of weight calculation by entropy method.

	Program	The Information Entropy Value (e)	Information Utility Value (d)	Weighting Factor (w)
RBPS	General public budget revenue per 10,000 people (CNY 100 million yuan)	0.9194	0.0806	40.01%
	Number of general secondary school students per 10,000 people (persons)	0.9916	0.0084	4.17%
	Number of elementary school students per 10,000 people (persons)	0.9897	0.0103	5.13%
	Number of beds in healthcare facilities per 10,000 people (beds)	0.9846	0.0154	7.63%
	Number of various social welfare adoption units per 10,000 people (units)	0.9474	0.0526	26.09%
	Number of various social welfare adoption beds per 10,000 people (beds)	0.9658	0.0342	16.96%

displays the weights of each indicator. The weights of these indicators reflect the extent to which the RBPS is composed of specific indicators.

5.3. Spatial Distribution

Figure 1a,b show the geographical distribution of DVI and RBPS, respectively. The darker the colour, the higher the level of both. The spatial distribution of the development level of county digital villages and the level of rural basic public services in China shows the following rules: (1) The spatial layout of county digital villages in China is “high in the east and low in the west”. Specifically, the development level of county digital villages in the eastern region is relatively high, particularly in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Counties in the central region with a high level of digital villages construction are mainly concentrated in Henan, Hebei and Jiangxi provinces. Except for a few counties, western and northeast China have low digital village indexes. (2) The level of basic public services is relatively evenly distributed in the eastern and central regions, with the counties with a high level of RBPS concentrated the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangsu. The gap between counties in western China is relatively obvious, and some counties in Sichuan and Inner Mongolia have a relatively high level of RBPS.

5.4. Correlation Analysis

After determining the composite index of each county’s rural basic public services, a correlation analysis was carried out between the DVI and RBPS and its specific indicators to understand the impact of digital villages on the level of rural basic public services. The findings presented in

Table 5. Correlation analysis of the level of digital villages and rural basic public services in counties.

	DVI	RBPS	The Number of Registered Population	GDP per Capita	Value Added of the Secondary Industry as a Proportion of GDP
DVI	1
the composite index rural basic public services	0.105 ***	1
the number of registered population	0.376 ***	−0.150 ***	1
GDP per capita	0.325 ***	0.496 ***	−0.043	1
Value added of the secondary industry as a proportion of GDP	0.306 ***	0.199 ***	0.115 **	0.434 ***	1

Note: ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.

show that the DVI is significantly and positively correlated with RBPS and its specific indicators (β = 0.105, p < 0.001), thus lending initial support to H1. Meanwhile, the number of registered population is significantly and positively correlated with the above variables, and GDP per capita and value-added of the secondary industry as a proportion of GDP are significantly and positively correlated with RBPS, thus highlighting the necessity of including these variables in the analysis of control variables.

5.5. Regression Analysis

To verify whether digital villages affect rural basic public services, a regression analysis was performed between the DVI and RBPS.

Table 6. Regression analysis of the impact of digital villages on rural basic public services.

	β	Standardized Inaccuracies	t	p	VIF
DVI	0.095	0.001	3.531	<0.001	1.736
Ln Number of the registered population	−0.285	0.016	−11.389	<0.001	1.512
Ln GDP per capita	0.363	0.025	13.917	<0.001	1.642
Ln Value added of the secondary industry as a proportion of GDP	0.015	0.032	0.619	0.536	1.375

further highlights the positive association between DVI and RBPS (β = 0.005, p < 0.001), thus further verifying the research hypothesis H1. The collinearity diagnosis results show that there is no collinearity between the independent variables (VIF < 5).

5.6. Heterogeneity Analysis

To determine whether the effects of digital villages on rural basic public services delivery are heterogeneous across regions, the 1840 counties were divided into eastern, central and western regions for a heterogeneity analysis. This study divides China into three major regions: eastern, central, and western. Based on the China Health Statistics Yearbook and existing literature, the division is based on geographical distribution and economic development level [60,61,62,63]. This division is also closely related to China’s reform and opening up and economic development strategy: The eastern region refers to the region that first implemented the coastal opening-up policy and has a higher level of economic development; The central region refers to the relatively underdeveloped economic regions; The western region refers to the least developed region among the three major regions. According to the above statistical yearbook and literature, Liaoning Province is classified in the eastern region, and Heilongjiang Province and Jilin Province are classified in the central region.

The results in

Table 7. Heterogeneity analysis of the impact of digital villages on rural basic public services.

	East (1)	Central (2)	West (3)
DVI	0.199 ** (4.687)	0.068 (1.546)	0.043 (1.106)
Ln Number of the registered population	−0.146 ** (−4.128)	−0.25 ** (−6.011)	−0.311 ** (−7.835)
Ln GDP per capita	0.581 ** (13.358)	0.28 ** (6.316)	0.247 ** (5.744)
Ln Value added of the secondary industry as a proportion of GDP	−0.054 (−1.349)	0.059 (1.273)	0.034 (0.896)
sample size	461	583	796
R2	0.478	0.181	0.202
Adjustment of R2	0.473	0.176	0.198

Note: ** p < 0.01. Values in parentheses are t values.

demonstrate that the positive effect of digital villages on the level of rural basic public services delivery is mainly observed in eastern counties (β = 0.199, p < 0.001), but this positive effect is not observed in central (β = 0.068, p = 0.123) and western counties (β = 0.043, p = 0.269). In summary, the effects of digital villages on the level of rural basic public services delivery vary depending on the region of China, thereby confirming the research hypothesis H2.

6. Conclusions and Implications

6.1. Discussions

The construction of digital villages presents an opportunity for authorities to leverage digital technologies to address shortcomings in rural basic public services delivery and achieve rural sustainable development. However, theoretical mechanism analysis and empirical studies on the relationship between digital villages and rural basic public services delivery remain limited. To address this gap, this study analyses the theoretical mechanism of digital villages to enhance rural basic public services delivery from the perspectives of digital governance theory. To verify the proposed hypotheses, this study employs the entropy method, correlation analysis, regression analysis and heterogeneity analysis to verify the positively associated relationship between digital villages and rural basic public services delivery based on macro data reported in 2018. Three key findings are obtained: (1) significant regional differences exist in DVI and rural RBPS; (2) China’s digital villages are positively associated with rural basic public services delivery; and (3) the positive effect of digital villages on rural basic public services delivery is mainly observed in eastern counties but is not observed in central and western counties.

Previous qualitative studies show that digital villages hold great potential in improving rural education resources [64,65], healthcare [18,66], social services [8] and cultural services [67]. As its main contribution, this study supplements existing research by offering a theoretical explanation from the perspective of digital governance theory and large-sample empirical testing, thus providing a highly comprehensive and rigorous theoretical basis and evidence for the positively associated relationship between digital villages and rural basic public services delivery.

This study further explains the reasons behind the main findings. First, the main reason for the regional differences in digital villages and rural public services delivery is that China’s regional economic and social development levels vary greatly. Specifically, the eastern coastal areas concentrate economic resources, while the central and western regions lack sufficient resources to develop digital villages and provide sufficient basic public services [38,68]. This concentration creates scale and agglomeration effects that magnify differences in digital village development across regions.

Second, the construction of digital villages is overall positively associated with rural basic public services delivery. Based on available resources, the construction of digital villages provides rural areas with low-cost access to quality resources, thus laying the foundation for realising accessibility. Basic public services, together with the advanced knowledge and production factors from cities, are continuously extended to rural areas, thus optimising the mode and efficiency of rural basic public services delivery and improving the quantity and quality of these services. At the same time, the construction of digital villages improves the way public services are supplied and the precision of supply content and supervision. By using a modern public service platform, services can be provided precisely according to the local conditions and individual villager needs, and social organisations and the public can participate in the whole delivery process. For example, in certain rural areas of Beijing, public service projects are incorporated into digital platforms in the form of a ’menu’, and online and offline services are provided according to the online requirements of rural residents [69]. A specific scenario is that when the elderly raise medical needs on the platform, community health workers will come to provide medical services. In this way, digital villages precisely match supply with demand for rural basic public services, which not only improves the quality and efficiency of services delivery but also promotes its accessibility and equity.

For the focused areas, in terms of rural public investments, the construction of digital villages is conducive to the application of big data technology by government departments to support their decision-making and improve the structure of public funds. Governments can make full use of digital means to achieve an efficient and accurate allocation and supervision of funds to support agriculture, thus safeguarding the basis of rural development and public services. Digital villages facilitate the delivery of quality educational resources, promote equity and accessibility in education, and improve the overall quality of educational services. The application of ‘Internet+’ in the rural healthcare sector has expanded the space and content of healthcare services, and the development of telemedicine and the promotion of ‘full online services’ have increased the accessibility of high-quality healthcare services in rural areas. Digital villages also help disadvantaged groups in rural areas cross the ‘digital divide’ and play important roles in facilitating the identification of the needs of special groups, delivering services, monitoring effects and ensuring the effectiveness and precision of services collaboration.

Third, from a regional perspective, the heterogeneity analysis results indicate that the positively associated relationship between digital villages and basic public services delivery is primarily observed in relatively developed eastern regions and is largely absent in central and western regions given their relatively low levels of economic and social development. Some studies believed that differences in digital resources, digital literacy and digital participation among different regions and groups also lead to differences in digital utilization results and digital dividends, which represents the digital divide [38,70,71]. The construction of digital villages often requires high costs, strong digital technology accumulation and digital industry support (particularly in the development of digital public services in rural areas), and less developed regions often lack resources to build digital platforms for rural public services with a large number of users, high digital technology maturity and powerful features [72]. Therefore, the construction of digital villages is a highly public good that requires national unified planning and investment to guarantee the standardisation of digital public services platforms in rural areas in the form of transfer payments and special construction.

Finally, the challenges related to rural residents mainly concern their poor digital literacy [9], their insufficient adoption of digital services [9] and the lack of capacity of digitally marginalised groups to access adequate digital services [19]. To address these challenges, specific policies and investments should be made to provide rural residents with affordable digital skills training and education programmes, to improve the ease of use and intelligence of digital public services platforms and to provide an adequate mix of online and offline public services for digitally marginalised groups. Another challenge in the development of digital villages is energy and environmental issues. The spread of digital technology and the popularization of digital infrastructure are heavily dependent on rare metals, water and electricity, and produce toxic waste, resulting in widespread investment in digital villages that puts pressure on the environment and energy [73,74]. The future development of digital villages requires the formulation of flexible and sustainable strategies to cope with possible challenges, towards a circular digital economy, and the innovation of clean, low-carbon and efficient energy supply architecture.

6.2. Conclusions

This study identifies significant regional differences in China’s digital villages and rural basic public services delivery due to varying socioeconomic levels. China’s Digital villages construction is positively associated with the overall level of basic rural public services, although this relationship is less pronounced in central and western regions. Therefore, the construction of digital villages requires unified national planning and investment, and the standardization of rural digital public services platforms should be guaranteed in the form of transfer payments and special construction. Policymakers also need to pay attention to the digital development of underdeveloped areas, especially the digital literacy of rural residents, and the energy and environmental challenges posed by digital technology.

6.3. Practical Implications

With the continuous promotion of the rural revitalisation strategy and the construction of digital villages, the needs of rural residents for high-quality basic public services have been increasing. It is therefore necessary to seize the major opportunity brought about by digital technology, accelerate the deep integration of basic public services delivery with digital technology in rural areas and create a high-quality basic public service system which is accessible, convenient, equitable and inclusive. The following practical implications can be incorporated into the planning of digital villages around the world, based on the main findings of this study.

(1)

Promote the construction of digital infrastructure in rural areas. Digital infrastructure is an important material basis for the digitisation of basic public services. On one hand, to raise the standard of rural communication services, network infrastructure construction—such as mobile Internet and broadband communication—should proceed more quickly. On the other hand, the new generation of information services infrastructure should be improved through applications, intelligent and convenient service terminals, and information service platforms to connect the ‘last kilometre’ of rural basic public services, thereby laying the foundation for enhancing the accessibility of basic public services.

(2)

Use data integration to promote the holistic delivery of rural basic public services. Digital villages should be used to promote the sharing and integration of basic public service data between regions and between urban and rural areas, thereby strengthening cross-level, cross-regional and cross-departmental cooperation, building an integrated basic public service digital platform to meet the diverse needs of rural residents, and realizing the holistic delivery of rural digital public services.

(3)

Utilize digital villages to establish a platform for collecting, expressing and feedback of basic public service needs, provide opportunities for the broad participation of rural residents, and enhance interaction between the government and rural residents. At the same time, conduct full-process supervision of the quality and quantity of rural basic public services delivery, promptly perceive and respond to the needs and demands of rural residents, especially vulnerable groups, provide more accurate personalized services, and promote accurate matching of supply and demand.

(4)

Narrow the gap in digital village construction and ensure a balanced rural digital public service delivery across regions. Establishing a nationwide unified policy, standard and investment and operational mechanism for the construction of digital villages at the institutional level enhances the scalability of the technology and functions of rural digital public services platforms. At the organisational level, establish a management mechanism that connects the central and local governments to ensure consistency in their digital villages planning. To guarantee resource security, the central government should increase its direct investment in the construction of digital villages in underdeveloped regions through transfer payments and special construction and guide developed regions in using their resource advantages to support their underdeveloped counterparts in constructing digital villages.

(5)

Accelerate the development of rural digital talent and the spread of digital application technologies. Through publicity, promotion, and digital skills training on digital basic public services, authorities can expose rural residents to the use of digital services, improve their digital literacy, encourage their digital services adoption, provide special venues, personnel and equipment for digitally disadvantaged groups and ensure that the majority of the rural residents have low-cost and convenient access to digital public services.

6.4. Limitations

This research bears three limitations that warrant further investigation. First, this study is cross-sectional in nature and relies solely on data from 2018, as data on large samples are difficult to obtain. The impact of digital villages on rural basic public services delivery at different stages of development was not sufficiently studied, and their impact on the development of rural basic public services and its mechanisms warrant further empirical investigation over a longer time span. Second, given the limited availability of county-level data, the basic public service indicator system used in this paper needs to be expanded in future research. Third, the composition and scope of rural basic public services in various countries or regions are constantly expanding. Due to the scarcity of statistical data at the county level in China, some services have not yet been included in the indicator system, such as county-level public cultural services and employment services, which need to be further expanded in future research.