Shifting From Digital Infrastructure to Digital Public Infrastructure: Case of ONDC Network

Digital public infrastructures (DPIs) are being hailed as the next wave of democratization and inclusivity but face the risk of disuse if stakeholders do not join. Using an empirical study of India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the paper enriches knowledge on stakeholders’ participation in DPI with respect to its public value generation. Through exploratory qualitative interviews, seven attributes were identified and prioritized using conjoint analysis method. The analysis offers insights into the relative importance of various attributes that small businesses place while considering participating in DPIs. Small businesses prioritize ‘decision autonomy’ and ‘cost of entry’ as the most important attributes. The findings offer implications for global south countries in building DPIs, and similar small business development efforts globally. The paper hopes to address the shortcomings in platform centric ecommerce ecosystems and fosters effective framework to enhance decision making in network-based ecommerce ecosystems. The result highlights that the current form of digital infrastructure of ecommerce in India do not align with small businesses preferences. Overall, the study offers valuable insights into small business expectations regarding DPI and serves as a foundational reference for policy makers and practitioners in this domain.