Happy Easter! The Lord is risen, alleluia!

I’m pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Mendoza Mission Research Awards, an annual recognition for Mendoza research papers published in high-quality academic journals that exemplify the College’s imperative to “Grow the Good in Business.” 

I also invite you to attend a presentation on May 2 from 3:00-4:30 p.m. in Mendoza 161, where the award winners will briefly describe their research findings. A reception will follow in the atrium.

Here are the recipients for 2025:

John Donovan, Gerspach Family Associate Professor of Accountancy
Yadav Gopalan, Assistant Professor of Accountancy
Pay for Prudence (Journal of Accounting and Economics)
This study introduces "pay for prudence" (PfP) in banker compensation, showing how it balances shareholder risk preferences with regulatory requirements. Detailed PfP terms correlate with equity incentives while reducing tail risk, bad loans, and regulatory downgrades without sacrificing profitability. PfP serves as "guard rails" complementing traditional equity incentives in guiding investment decisions.

Gregory Robson, Associate Research Professor of Business Ethics and Society
James Otteson, John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics
Freedom in Business: Elizabeth Anderson, Adam Smith, and the Effects of Dominance in Business (Philosophy of Management)
This paper strengthens Anderson's critique of workplace dictatorships by incorporating Smith's insights on labor division's harmful effects. The authors argue that workplace unfreedom is more severe than Anderson acknowledges, requiring stronger institutional remedies than she proposes to address worker domination.

Ben Matthies, Assistant Professor of Finance
Benjamin Golez, William and Cassie Daley Associate Professor of Finance
Fed Information Effects: Evidence from the Equity Term Structure (Journal of Financial Economics)
This study explores whether Fed interest rate decisions signal information about the state of the economy to investors. The authors use option prices to construct a short-horizon equity asset, a claim to aggregate dividends over the next six months, and study its response in a narrow window around FOMC announcements. The authors find a positive relationship between monetary policy surprises and short-horizon asset responses, revealing that short-term and long-term equity assets move in opposite directions on average following Federal Open Market Committee announcements. This pattern suggests that market participants interpret central bank policy decisions as conveying information about economic conditions. As a result, surprise accommodative monetary policy actions intended to stimulate economic growth may prove counterproductive if market participants interpret them as indicators of deteriorating economic conditions and curtail investment accordingly.

John Lalor, Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Ahmed Abbasi, Joe and Jane Giovanini Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Kezia Oketch, Ph.D. in Analytics Candidate
Should Fairness be a Metric or a Model? A Model-based Framework for Assessing Bias in Machine Learning Pipelines (ACM Transactions on Information Systems)
This paper introduces FAIR-Frame, a framework for modeling fairness across multiple protected attributes in ML models. Extensive testing showed that FAIR-Frame’s representational fairness measures better align with and predict allocational harm observed in downstream applications. FAIR-Frame has important implications for various ML contexts, including information retrieval, user modeling, digital platforms, and text classification, where responsible and trustworthy AI are becoming an imperative.

Cindy Muir, Professor of Management & Organization
Supervisor integrity empowers employees to advocate for diversity in problematic climates (Journal of Applied Psychology)
This research explores why supervisors often struggle to inspire employees to engage in diversity advocacy — moral, value-centric behaviors that actively support equity in the workplace for all employees. The authors propose that a key reason may be that employees don’t feel empowered to take such action. However, they argue that when supervisors demonstrate strong integrity by consistently adhering to valued, acceptable principles, it can inspire employees to step up as advocates, especially in environments where the diversity climate is perceived as poor because that’s when employees may feel their actions are most needed. The theory is tested through three studies: a field survey, an experimental vignette, and a behavioral experiment.

Shijie Lu, Howard J. and Geraldine F. Korth Associate Professor of Marketing
Within-Category Satiation and Cross-Category Spillover in Multiproduct Advertising (Journal of Marketing)
This study examines how privacy-preserving policies, such as reduced consumer data retention, affect consumer behavior, advertiser profits, and platform revenues in the context of multiproduct ads (MPAs). While enhancing privacy, these measures lower ad variety, reducing consumer engagement and ad effectiveness due to intensified within-category satiation and weakened cross-category complementarity. The findings underscore the challenge for ad platforms in balancing privacy with consumer interest and advertiser profitability.

Please join me in congratulating the winners and I hope to see you at the presentations on May 2.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

Martijn Cremers
Martin J. Gillen Dean
Bernard J. Hank Professor of Finance

Enhancing Our Learning Environment: Upcoming Relocation of the Mahaffey Business Library

As part of our continued efforts to modernize and enhance the academic experience at the Mendoza College of Business, we are preparing for the thoughtful relocation of the Mahaffey Business Library. 

This change was necessitated by the temporary space crunch during the construction of the North Addition, which also provided an opportunity to rethink and reimagine the role of the Business Library and all of the ways the library has been serving our faculty and students. The purpose of the relocation is to expand space for students, faculty and staff, while maintaining the critical research tools, support services and collaborative culture that define the Mendoza learning experience.

First, I would like to thank Kristen Collett-Schmitt, associate dean for the Undergraduate and Specialized Master's Programs, and Ron Grisoli and Chris Fruehwirth for their invaluable support and partnership during this significant transition. Additionally, I want to recognize our committed business librarians — Pete Pietraszewski, Kim Ferraro and Michael Deike — as well as Hesburgh leadership, including Dean Margaret Meserve and associate University librarian Mark Dehmlow, for their ongoing collaboration. Their joint efforts have been crucial in developing a relocation strategy that respects the library’s vital role within the Mendoza community.

A Strategic Move to Strengthen Services

The relocation reflects a broader plan to align our physical spaces with Mendoza’s evolving academic and strategic needs. The Mahaffey Business Library’s core services will remain as a vital part of our community, now in a reimagined format that maintains close access to technologies, research tools and librarian expertise.

To ensure minimal disruption and maximum benefit, the transition will include:

• A new Technology and Collaboration Corridor (TCC) positioned between two of our largest computer classrooms, L068 and L062. This will allow the library to maintain crucial on-site equipment and services, while also providing scale-up access to free computers when our students most need them, particularly outside of class hours and during study days and exams (see ground plan).
  
• Enhanced access to Bloomberg terminals through the creation of our new Trading Room and by placing additional units within the TCC for general use. We will more than double our current capacity of Bloomberg terminals within the College walls.
  
• Ongoing presence of business librarians in Mendoza, offering in-person consultations and instructional support by using the adjacent computer classrooms and team rooms.
  
• A dedicated printer cluster, preserving essential printing access in the heart of Mendoza.
  
  

Listening to Our Community

Input from faculty and students played a central role in shaping this plan. We’ve heard the value you place on proximity, support and collaboration — and this plan directly reflects that feedback. We remain committed to a smooth transition, with clear communication and ample opportunity for feedback throughout and beyond.

What’s Next

The relocation will occur in phases throughout 2025, with careful planning, continuous support, and opportunities for community input along the way. We will continue to share updates as the process unfolds.

This move preserves and enhances the research, teaching and learning support that Mendoza depends on. By evolving how we use our space, we better position our College to support a growing and dynamic academic community.

Finally, we are now exploring the best way to repurpose the space currently occupied by the business library, including the offices for the business librarians. We are in urgent need of additional space for staff, especially space that can accommodate a larger group of staff to be housed together, rather than working in multiple separate offices. During the construction of the North Addition, we are also in critical need for offices for our faculty. We will be communicating more definite plans as those are developed over the next few months.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement as we move forward together.

Ryan Retartha

Advisor to the Dean and Senior Director of Strategy & Planning

Mendoza Website Redesign: Your Voice, Our Future

Dear Mendoza Colleagues,

Over the past several months, our Marketing & Brand Strategy team has been laying the critical groundwork for an all-new website experience. This initial phase has been about understanding our current digital landscape and charting a strategic path forward.

Behind the Scenes: Strategic Groundwork

Our groundwork has involved:

• Comprehensive meetings with Notre Dame’s Creative Web Services Team.
• Collaborative sessions with Mendoza IT and our Mendoza developer, MinHee Myung.
• Thorough auditing of our current digital ecosystem and current websites.

We learned:

Our Mendoza websites are scattered across different platforms, making it difficult to tell a consistent story about who we are. We see this as a chance to bring our digital branding together in a way that truly showcases the Mendoza College of Business and our strategic goals. We aim to create a cohesive website experience that highlights our collective excellence and makes it easier for visitors to find information across our entire ecosystem.

Bringing Your Voice to the Forefront

Over the next month, we'll conduct a series of focused feedback sessions with each academic department, program and key stakeholders. We want to create a meaningful opportunity for you to shape our digital future, share your insights, and, ultimately, help us build a user-focused website that aligns with our College’s strategic priorities.

What to Expect

• Collaborative Feedback Sessions: Brand managers will be inviting all departments, faculty and staff to attend sessions at various points. Student feedback will also be collected.
• Real Impact: Your input will inform our digital identity and comprehensive strategy.
• Open Dialogue: We’re committed to establishing a setting where you can share your candid thoughts and ideas.

Our Approach

Our goal is to create a website that not only looks great but serves the diverse needs of its users — including prospective & current students, faculty, staff, alumni, employers and more. We want to understand:

• What works well on our current website.
• The challenges you face —  or those you hear of students facing —  when navigating our web pages.
• Your vision for a more effective Mendoza College of Business website.

Your Feedback is Our Greatest Asset!

This is our opportunity to reimagine how we present ourselves to the world. We’re committed to a thoughtful, transparent process that values your perspective.

Stay tuned for your department’s invitation. We’re looking forward to building a new and improved website that reflects the Mendoza difference.

Best,

Rebecca Wood
Senior Associate Director Brand Strategy
Marketing & Brand Strategy Team
Mendoza College of Business

MBA Program Update: Curricular Changes for 2025-26

As we approach the end of the academic year, we want to share some important updates about changes to the MBA program coming next year. We're excited to continue enhancing the program through several key improvements.

We are taking a multidisciplinary approach to the student journey that aligns career planning with today’s market trends that increasingly require professionals to have a diverse skill set and a strong understanding of interconnected business functions. The new MBA Pathways model will feature three career pathways: Finance, Strategy and Technology. Each pathway represents a general career focus spanning multiple roles and industries, where the previous model aligned the pathways with academic disciplines. The re-envisioned pathways represent broad relationships with key employers, ensuring that our students have phenomenal career outcomes in a variety of roles.

We’ve also redesigned our Mod Away programs in Silicon Valley and Chile to maintain their strongest elements while improving aspects that didn't meet our standards for excellence. The new format integrates Silicon Valley travel with on-campus coursework in the fall, and Chile travel with on-campus curriculum in the spring. This restructuring allows students to participate in both programs while still engaging in campus recruiting activities and attending November football games!

Additional changes to the program include a new course on generative AI in the core curriculum and more extensive communications and presentation courses for students in the first year. Notre Dame MBA students will be well-equipped with the analytical chops, presentation skills and team skills to shine in their internships.

Additionally, we're launching an Executive in Residence program where MBA alumni from outstanding organizations — including Google, EY and IBM — will mentor students. These executives will periodically visit campus and contribute to classroom learning in various capacities.

Over the next year, we will continue enhancing the curriculum to align with employer partners and strengthen the career outcomes for our students. Change will not always be easy, and we ask that you all work with us to do the best we can as we continue to strengthen and streamline the curriculum, with a focus on pedagogical excellence and equipping our students for phenomenal career outcomes. 

So many of you have helped so far, especially the department leadership — Brad Badertscher, Shane Corwin, Jen Cronin, Rob Easley, Frank German, Jim Leady, Mitch Olsen, Jim Seida, Ann Tenbrunsel and Jen Waddell. Thanks also to faculty members Robert Battalio, Kristen Collett-Schmitt, Kevin Hartman, Amanda McKendree, Alfonso Pedraza-Martinez, Mike Meyer, Kelly Rubey and Adam Wowak for your willingness to be flexible and supportive during this transition.  

Also, numerous staff leaders have collaborated with us to ensure successful operations, including Carol Elliott, Christine Gramhofer, Megan Piersma, Marnie Stahl, Teresa True, Ben Wilson, Rebecca Wood and their teams. Evolving the program certainly presents challenges for all involved, but your flexibility and cooperation make us so thankful to be a part of this fine institution. 

In Notre Dame,

Nick and Gianna

Nick Berente
Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs

Gianna Bern
Associate Dean for the MBA