• Our participation rate was 80.9%, which is an excellent number and speaks to the importance you placed on providing your input. Our highest scores are around Engagement and Work Community, where we have higher numbers than the overall University.
• Respect and Fairness consistently earned a low score across the University, which is a concern and an opportunity to improve, and I commit to diving into the issue more deeply.
• We also have room to improve in the category of Recognition, which is another area of opportunity across campus.
• It would be good to better understand differences in scores between men and women, and explore how we can address these.

Here’s an update on several noteworthy published or forthcoming papers by our Mendoza faculty:

"Conforming Tax Avoidance and Capital Market Pressure" (forthcoming in The Accounting Review)

Brad Badertscher, Accountancy Professor

In this study, Brad and his co-authors developed a measure of corporate tax avoidance that reduces both financial and taxable income, which they refer to as "book-tax conforming" tax avoidance. The measure should be useful in future research and provides new insights on the extent to which public firms are willing to reduce income tax liabilities at the expense of reporting lower financial income.

"Institutional Logics and Pluralistic Responses to Enterprise System Implementation: A Qualitative Meta-
Analysis" (forthcoming in MIS Quarterly)

Nicholas Berente, ITAO Associate Professor

Researchers have been studying organizational reactions to enterprise information systems now for 20 years. Enterprise information systems span across diverse units in an organization, and include systems like enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and electronic health records (EHR). In this study, Nick and his co-authors use a "qualitative meta analysis" methodology to synthesize the findings from the existing body of research. They developed an integrative framework that describes when to expect what sort of reaction to an enterprise information system implementation in different parts of an organization and under different conditions.

"Transparency and dealer networks: Evidence from the initiation of post-trade reporting in the mortgage 
backed security market" (Journal of Financial Economics)

Paul Schultz, John W. and Maude Clarke Professor of Finance

Mortgage-backed securities, like corporate, municipal and treasury bonds, trade in dealer markets. Investors buy and sell them through investment banks and other financial intermediaries rather than in a centralized exchange. In dealer markets it is often difficult for investors to determine whether they are paying or receiving a fair price for securities. Schultz and his co-author examined the impact of a regulatory change that forced dealers to report trades and trade prices within 45 minutes. The research found in part that with trade reporting, trading costs fell for institutional investors and that concealing trade prices didn’t help investors but rather protected inefficient high-cost dealers.

"What Are We Explaining? A Review and Agenda on Initiating, Engaging, Performing, and Contextualizing 
Entrepreneurship" (Journal of Management)

Dean Shepherd, Ray and Milann Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship, Management & Organization

Entrepreneurship is multifaceted. The purpose of this review is to acknowledge and critically assess the
many and varied dependent variables (DVs) of entrepreneurship over the last 17 years. By focusing
exclusively on systematically reviewing entrepreneurship’s DVs, this paper maps out, classifies and
provides order to the phenomena that scholars consider part of this self-defined field of research. Using a
systematic selection process and an inductive approach to categorization, the authors offer a metaframework
for organizing entrepreneurship’s DVs.

"Emotion and consumption: Toward a new understanding of cultural collisions between Hong Kong and
PRC luxury consumers" (Journal of Consumer Culture)

John Sherry Jr., Raymond W. & Kenneth G. Herrick Professor of Marketing

This study examines how specific emotions drive consumption, as embodied by escalating conflicts
between luxury consumers in Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China. Emotions engender colliding
notions of self, status and cultural and political identity between these disparate yet intertwined cultures.

I congratulate the authors and I’m grateful for their dedication to research and academic excellence.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

Business on the Frontlines (BOTFL) is an MBA course developed and taught by Professor Viva Bartkus. I consider BOTFL to be exemplary for the Notre Dame MBA program. The core mission of BOTFL to utilize business as a force for good in areas devastated by conflict and poverty is reflected in Viva's statement:

Never underestimate the human dignity associated with a good day’s work, particularly for those who have come through conflict and deep poverty.

In a few short weeks, six BOTFL teams will travel across the world to work with a partner organization on projects that seek solutions in providing a good day’s work to the bottom billion. Below is a list of their destinations, partners and projects. The travel is difficult and the work can be stressful. Let’s keep the students and advisers in our prayers, as well as those whose hope depends on efforts like BOTFL to find business solutions.

BRAZIL

Partner: Fundação Amazonas Sustentável (FAS)

Project: Last year in partnership with FAS, students examined the pirarucu value chain. This year, students will partner with FAS again to examine the value chain for farinha to look for opportunities for the indigenous communities of the Amazon rainforest to improve the livelihoods of their members.

COLOMBIA

Partner: Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP)

Project: The team will again partner with FIP. This year's project will look specifically at economic alternatives to coca cultivation in formerly FARC-held lands in rural Colombia.

GUATEMALA

Partner: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) Humanitarian Services

Project: This is third year working with LDS Humanitarian Services and the second year working with the group in Guatemala. The team will establish a cacao co-op to capture more value of the chocolate value chain for the local Mayan community.

PUERTO RICO

Partner: Universidad del Sagrado Corazón

Project: During BOTFL's first visit to Puerto Rico, the team will look at opportunities to drive economic growth and livelihoods in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan, an area formerly recognized as an artist community and creative hub, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria in fall 2017.

TUNISIA

Partner: Agrimed/the Abdennadhar Group

Project: This is also BOTFL's first visit to Tunisia. The team will work with a local business group to study the feasibility of converting olive husks left over from olive oil production into a sustainable energy source for either domestic consumption or export to the US/EU.

RWANDA

Partner: Mission of the Glorious Cross/Sinapisi

Project: Ben Murunga, a 2013 MBA and BOTFL alum, currently works with Sinapisi in Rwanda. The team will support efforts to review strategic planning for the organization and its partners.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn