I’m pleased to announce the 2024 recipients of the Mendoza Mission Research Award, an annual recognition of Mendoza research papers published in high-quality academic journals that exemplify the College’s imperative to “Grow the Good in Business.” 

Five papers were chosen from nominations submitted across the College, with one award winner in each department:

ACCOUNTANCY
Brad A. Badertscher, Deloitte Professor of Accountancy
Assurance Level Choice, CPA fees, and Financial Reporting Benefits: Inferences from U.S. Private Firms (Journal of Accounting and Economics)
Many U.S. private firms choose either a financial statement compilation or review rather than the higher assurance provided by an audit, yet little is known about these choices. The researchers find that CPA fees more than double for each increment in assurance. Commonly used financial reporting quality proxies are higher for both reviews and audits relative to compilations but are statistically indistinguishable between reviews and audits. The study also finds that assurance-level choices are associated with bank debt, trade credit and control concerns.

FINANCE
Jun Yang, Assistant Professor of Finance
Bank Stress Testing: Public Interest or Regulatory Capture? (Review of Finance)
The researchers test whether the influence on regulators affects banks’ stress-test outcomes. They find that the Too-Big-to-Fail banks face the toughest tests. Despite their more conservative capital plans, the large banks still fail their tests more frequently than other banks. In contrast, while the study finds little evidence that political or regulatory connections affect the quantitative element of the stress tests, these connected banks face less scrutiny under the qualitative dimension.

IT, ANALYTICS, AND OPERATIONS
Yoonseock Son, Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Kaitlin Wowak, Robert & Sara Lumpkins Associate Professor of Business Analytics
Corey Angst, Jack and Joan McGraw Family Collegiate Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Gender Mismatch and Bias in People-Centric Operations: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment (Journal of Operations Management)
In an increasingly digital world, understanding how gender bias manifests is imperative. In partnership with an online platform offering weight management programs and consultation services, this study shows that revealing the consultant’s gender encourages customers to leave more reviews and higher ratings, with the impact more pronounced when the consultant is female. Gender mismatches, where the client and consultant are of opposite genders, result in higher ratings and increased engagement compared to gender matches. 

MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATION
Dean Shepherd, Ray and Milann Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship
Intersectionality in Intractable Dirty Work: How Mumbai Ragpickers Make Meaning of Their Work and Lives (Academy of Management Journal)
The challenge of dirty work is intensified when it is intractable — when it is difficult, if not impossible, for a person to avoid doing this work. This study of meaning making in the face of intractable dirty work examines ragpickers in Mumbai, India, who handle and dispose of garbage, and are further tainted by belonging to the lowest caste in Indian society and by living in slums. These ragpickers constructed both an overarching sense of helplessness rooted in the intractability of their situation, and a set of positive meanings — survival, destiny, and hope — rooted in specific facets of their lives.

MARKETING
Frank Germann, Viola D. Hank Associate Professor
Frontiers: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Female Mentors (Marketing Science)
Governmental and nongovernmental organizations invest billions of dollars every year providing training programs to emerging market entrepreneurs. Many of these programs involve providing entrepreneurs with mentors. Unfortunately, the effects of these programs are often muted, or even null, for woman-owned firms. Against this backdrop, the researchers tested whether gender matching, where female entrepreneurs are randomly paired with a female mentor, could help address the gender gap. Findings from a randomized controlled field experiment with 930 Ugandan entrepreneurs showed that firm sales and profits of female entrepreneurs guided by a female mentor increased by, on average, 32% and 31% compared with the control group. In contrast, female entrepreneurs guided by a male mentor did not significantly improve their performance.

Please join me in congratulating the award recipients. We will celebrate their work during a special event in spring 2025 recognizing the winners of 2024 and 2025. Last year's celebration was a big success, and all in attendance seemed to greatly enjoy hearing a high-level summary of the research projects. Recipients also will be featured on the Mendoza Faculty Awards website and digital signage.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn