The institutional rationale of transnational corporations in international educational development: A grounded theory analysis of Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft

Transnational technology corporations are acting on what they see as strategic opportunities in international educational development. Now that they have emerged as serious actors working in the social sphere and play a major role in international educational development, how transnational technology corporations interact with governments and the educational development community merits a formal study of their motivation and rationale.;This dissertation investigates the "donor logic" or institutional rationale of transnational technology corporations with a strong and consistent presence in international education: Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft. Donor logic, the process of analyzing or dissecting various institutional rationales to better understand the motivations of actors in the development space, is an established tradition in the field of international and comparative education (Steiner-Khamsi, 2008). While the donor logic of some international actors in education is well documented, little in the existing literature gives us the means to understand the role of emerging actors such as celebrities, foundations applying market-based approaches to aid, and transnational corporations. As corporations are not donors, I use the term "institutional rationale" to apply the donor logic concept of analyzing or dissecting the various institutional rationales of technology corporations Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft. I also reflect upon how transnational corporations are similar to and different from traditional donors in international educational development. This study aims to help the international development community better understand how technology corporations Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft develop their strategies and how their evolving engagement potentially affects international development.;Drawing upon in-depth interviews with key stakeholders from Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, multilateral organizations, NGOs, research organizations, academia, and government, as well as participant observation, artifact collection, and document analysis, I tested my tentative theory that the institutional rationale of transnational technology corporations' engagement in international educational development is grounded in a relationship among four concepts. Based on the research findings, my concluding framework presents multiple rationales (i.e., industry, company, and organization-level logics) for Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft in international educational development. I conclude with ideas for how the concluding framework can be used for---and used by--- the comparative and international educational development community.