ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on research to identify the actors and interests involved in the commercialisation of schooling in Finland. It argues that edu-business in Finnish compulsory education is significant and growing, despite Finland's historical and continuing commitments towards public provision of education. The fourth group of actors affecting edu-business in Finland are consultancy businesses that are medium or large IT service companies. The actors in edu-business we identified in this study are linked to each other and also to state actors in various ways that could be regarded as a business ecosystem. Central to edu-business in Finland is the development of new products, scaling them to wider set of customers, testing them in PISA-branded Finnish schools and at the same time passing this off as part and parcel of everyday school life. The rhetoric of partnerships with schools in the logics of business-making can benefit corporate expansion and profit-seeking.
