Welcome back! I hope you had a restful break. What an exciting time to cheer on the Fighting Irish! I still haven’t recovered from the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl. What incredible victories. I am quite inspired by the toughness and grit of this team and Coach Freeman. I am particularly proud of the many Mendoza students on the team! 

As we embark on the second half of this academic year, I am glad to share the strides we are making in achieving the ambitious goals outlined in our 2024-2025 Objectives and Key Results. Together, we are advancing Mendoza’s mission to provide a world-class education rooted in faith, excellence and purpose; to foster impactful research that benefits business and society; and to cultivate a thriving and inclusive community for our students, faculty and staff. 

Below, I highlight our collective progress across the key areas driving our mission to Grow the Good in Business.

ADVANCING RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

• Securing Resources for Ph.D. Programs: I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve achieved a significant milestone by raising almost $15M for the Ph.D. in Analytics program. Additionally, the provost has committed $2M for our Ph.D. in Management program, faculty recruitment and research. This funding is in addition to previously announced benefaction for research, making 2024 our most successful year for research funding in the College’s history.
• Enhancing Research Infrastructure: Preparations for the Behavioral Lab, Trading Room and North Addition construction are progressing as planned. North Addition construction is starting ahead of schedule to ensure completion before the start of the Fall 2026 semester. Further, our College events team led by Meghan Huff has greatly enhanced the ability of our academic departments to host conferences, lectures and events. I recognize that the various construction projects will be disruptive to most of us — and very disruptive to some. We are committed to supporting all faculty, staff and students as best we can with the limited space we have. I hope for and appreciate your patience as these exciting improvements get underway.

ENHANCING UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS

• Research and Honors Progress: The Mendoza Research Honors Program has been successfully launched! A dedicated Business Honors Program Curriculum Committee also has been established, with its inaugural meeting held on December 9.

• Curriculum and Program Development: Approval was secured for the Business & Computer Science double major program, which will provide an unrivaled new learning experience for students who aspire to be at the forefront of technological innovation and business strategy while also demonstrating a commitment to cross-campus, institutional thinking that is a hallmark of Notre Dame’s 2033 Strategic Framework. Specifically, this program will allow Mendoza students in any of our five business majors to take Computer Science as a second major.
• Student Programming Success: The new College-wide mentorship program is thriving, with more than 94% of First-Year students participating in the Maximizing Mendoza course led by Andy Wendelborn. They are mentored generally by our BHP students, who have shown great commitment to service through this effort. We look forward to growing our mentorship presence and growing the Maximizing Mendoza course.

ELEVATING GRADUATE PROGRAMS

• Curricular Innovation: Several curricular committees have formed for our graduate programs and are taking strides to consider how we can better tailor our programs to attract elite students. The scope includes course offerings, credit hours, requirements and grading structures. I look forward to Nick Berente, Kristen Collett-Schmitt, Gianna Bern and our academic directors presenting their recommendations later this year.
• MBA Strategic Planning: Our partners at Notre Dame Institutional Research, Innovation & Strategy (IRIS) have completed their fall research and benchmarking process for our MBA program, and will move forward with Nick and Gianna – supported by a group of faculty members representing each of our departments – on writing our strategic plan, due by the end of June. I am grateful for the unprecedented level of support from the provost and other University executives in prioritizing the Notre Dame MBA as our flagship graduate program this year, and for the effort provided by Rob Kelly and our staff leaders.

FOSTERING TALENT DEVELOPMENT

• Faculty Recruitment: We continue to focus on recruiting top-tier faculty and we are finalizing some incredible hires this fall. I especially thank Ken Kelly and the chairs for their diligence, hard work and commitment to excellence in all our recruitment efforts.
• Staff Development: Rob has spent much of the fall working closely with our partners in Human Resources, and we are making great strides in ensuring competitive staff compensation and supporting professional growth. Many of our staff have completed the University’s Change Management Certification program this fall, demonstrating their commitment to leadership and excellence. Finally, our staff has been selected to participate in a new performance management pilot program, and I am grateful to all the staff working on making the most of the opportunity. 

INNOVATING IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

• Experiential Learning Strategy: Nick and Gianna have worked closely with Megan Piersma and her team to evaluate many of our experiential learning programs this fall, including expenses, requirements, rigor and pathway alignment. Each of them has spent time traveling with our students to ensure a clear understanding of how to keep our offerings relevant and impactful for our graduate students. 
• New Spaces: As I mentioned above, I’m thrilled that three new construction projects are starting this spring that will transform and elevate our ability to support teaching, research and learning at an elite level. Our North Addition will include what we hope will be one of the finest classrooms on campus to support larger classes and lots of additional space for faculty and research; the new Trading Room will provide expanded, dedicated space for students interested in pursuing careers in finance; and our new Behavioral Lab will transform our ability to perform research experiments. 

BUILDING A VIBRANT COMMUNITY CULTURE

• Strengthening Workplace Engagement: Our “1Mendoza” culture is supported by increased cross-functional team integration and staff leadership initiatives. Social opportunities such as the Halloween costume contest and DEI Council-led events highlight the strong sense of community of our faculty and staff.
• Diversity in Admissions: Partnerships and tools such as the Duolingo English Test are increasing the quality and diversity of graduate program applicants, ensuring that our programs attract talented individuals from a variety of backgrounds.

Together, we are creating a stronger, more dynamic Mendoza to contribute, cooperate and compete for tomorrow's opportunities, guided by Notre Dame’s distinctive Catholic mission. Thank you for your continued dedication and partnership as we bring this vision to life.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

It was great to see so many of you at our Christmas Party on Wednesday. I hope everyone enjoyed the food, decorations and gifts. Thank you to those who helped to organize the event: Meghan Huff, Joseph Torma, Reilly Fangman, Chris Grenert, Connie Varga, Wendy Walker and Shelley Arrendondo-Rice. 

Many of us will pause in the coming days before 2024 counts down to look back at the calendar year and to think about what 2025 may hold for us. 

We can find wisdom in the words of Pope Francis, who designated 2025 to be a Jubilee Year for the Catholic Church.

The Jubilee Year, which occurs every 25 years, begins on Christmas Eve when the pope opens the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is a time for forgiveness and reconciliation in a world torn by war, disease, violence, extreme poverty and the climate crisis. Pope Francis declared the theme to be "Pilgrims of Hope"— a journey of renewal of faith and hope in Christ, and a resolution to bring hope to a despairing world:

“The coming Jubilee will thus be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God. May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation. May the witness of believers be for our world a leaven of authentic hope, a harbinger of new heavens and a new earth (cf. 2 Pet 3:13), where men and women will dwell in justice and harmony, in joyful expectation of the fulfillment of the Lord’s promises.”

Pope Francis’ words remind me of Father Bob Dowd’s inspiring inauguration speech, where he spoke of the University’s charge to be a bridge-builder in a world of widening chasms:

“If we are to journey toward truth together, and stay true to our mission, then we must hone our skills as bridge-builders and form the kinds of leaders we need in our world today:

People who know how to listen to others to ensure that all voices are heard in the search for truth.

Critical thinkers equipped with a clear moral framework to face life’s challenges.

Compassionate, servant leaders who can navigate complex issues with conviction and with courage, and bring out the best in others, with humility and humanity.

We owe each other as much. We owe our wider society as much.”

Mendoza College of Business has followed the charge of being a bridge builder since its founding. In this past year alone, these efforts have included the Powerful Means Initiative’s help in building a childcare center in Uganda, Frontlines in America’s work with the Summit Lake Paiute to restore economic sovereignty, ND Elevate’s support of leadership development for women and the International Business Fellows’ trip to Poland to explore firsthand the intersection of faith and business.

Our research continues to bridge the gap between scholars and practitioners to create benefits for society, exploring a broad range of current issues from gender bias online to ethical considerations of AI. To cite just a few examples: Alfonso Pedraza-Martinez’s research employed humanitarian logistics to find solutions to climate disasters of increasing magnitude. Ann Tenbrunsel applied her research expertise on ethical blind spots to the Holocaust, one of the most demonstrable examples of ethical failings in human history. CARE’s Accountability in a Sustainable World Quarterly bridges academic and practitioner expertise to new ideas about addressing climate change from a business perspective.   

This inspiring work is being done in the College every day to uplift those in greatest need and bring light where the challenges are the most daunting. I am thankful for all that you do.

May your year ahead be filled with hope and purpose. May we be bridge-builders in a world of need.

Merry Christmas to all.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

Here we are, in the last week of classes! Best wishes for all of the work related to the end of the semester.

I hope to see you at our Christmas Party from 3:30-5 p.m. on Wednesday (December 11) in Stayer Commons to celebrate the (almost) end of the semester and the Advent and Christmas seasons. 

We can also celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of our faculty in publishing research in top journals this year. Here are some recent papers:

Ahmed Abbasi, Joe and Jane Giovanini Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations
Pathways for Design Research on Artificial Intelligence (Information Systems Research)
An expanding body of research is adopting a design perspective on artificial intelligence (AI), wherein researchers prescribe solutions to problems using AI approaches rather than describing or explaining AI-related phenomena being studied. This article highlights six major impediments for such research and uses the explosion in the state of the art for large language models to underscore each. The authors propose pathways for overcoming the impediments and use examples to illustrate how the pathways can be followed for different types of AI-related design artifacts.

Sarv Devaraj, Fred V. Duda Professor of Business
Uncertainty and Complexity in Healthcare Operations: How Hospitals Weather the Perfect Storm (Journal of Operations Management)
The research studies the effect of two sources of uncertainty in healthcare operations  — the variation in patient mix and patient volume — on healthcare outcomes of length of stay and number of procedures. The paper also examines the mitigational role of the operations concepts of focus and capacity utilization. Using a dataset of 830,853 patient discharges, the researchers find support for their hypotheses, while also finding considerable heterogeneity in the effects of uncertainty across hospital types.

Jianna Jin, Assistant Professor of Marketing
Avoiding Embarrassment Online: Response to and Inferences About Chatbots When Purchases Activate Self‐presentation Concerns (Journal of Consumer Psychology)
This research explores when consumers prefer chatbots over human service representatives: In purchase contexts where self-presentation concerns are active (e.g., buying diarrheal pills), consumers prefer chatbots (vs. human) because chatbots are perceived as having no “mind” (i.e., ability to think and feel). However, this preference weakens when chatbots are anthropomorphized (e.g., given human names and human profile pictures), as consumers mistakenly attribute more “mind” to these humanized chatbots.

Leandro Sanz, Assistant Professor of Finance
Unintended Real Effects of EDGAR: Evidence from Corporate Innovation (The Accounting Review)
This study examines the impact of the SEC’s EDGAR system on corporate innovation. While improved disclosure dissemination can lower firms' cost of capital, it may also increase proprietary disclosure costs, potentially discouraging innovation. The researchers find that EDGAR-filing firms reduce innovation investment, while technology rivals and private firms increase theirs. These results highlight how increased disclosure dissemination can deter investment in innovative projects with returns dependent on information spillovers.

Brittany Solomon, Thomas A. and James J. Bruder Assistant Professor of Administrative Leadership
Liberal Versus Conservative Distrust: A Construal-level Approach to Dissimilarity in the Workplace (Journal of Applied Psychology)
This research challenges the assumption that dissimilarity to others uniformly undermines trust in the workplace, where cross-party and cross-race interactions are structurally induced. Five studies demonstrated that liberals tend to view their conservative (politically dissimilar) coworkers as less trustworthy people in the world and refrain from disclosures to them, while conservatives tend to view their racial out-group coworkers as less trustworthy in their jobs and refrain from relying on them at work.

Thank you to Ahmed, Sarv, Jianna, Leandro and Brittany for your research contributions.

In Notre Dame, 

Martijn

The never-ending search for the right temperature

Have you ever felt like Goldilocks searching for the “just right” temperature in your office or a classroom in Mendoza? Imagine trying to find the perfect temperature for up to 2,000 people on any given day — in Indiana. It feels like an impossible task, especially in a nearly 30-year-old building with almost 200,000 square feet! 

To help us figure it out, Mendoza embarked on a retro-commissioning project with our campus facilities partners and a third-party vendor, Emcor Havel, to focus on occupant comfort, improving energy efficiency and system functionality. This project began in early summer and is nearing completion. 

Here is more information:

What is Retro-commissioning?

Retro-commissioning is a proactive approach to maintenance intended to improve the functionality of the building and the reliability of the heating and air conditioning equipment. This process seeks to restore the building’s heating and air conditioning system to its intended performance by testing each component within the system making any necessary repairs or calibrations. Once the system is fully functional, final tuning and optimization can occur, resulting in better temperature control and energy savings. 

What has been identified?

In some cases, spaces were too hot (thermostats set incorrectly, broken controls, inconsistent airflow); in other cases, spaces were too cold (dampers were stuck open). The project involved recalibrating systems, adjusting schedules, and fine-tuning sensors to make our spaces operate within the University standards. Along the way, several unusual issues (IT closet ventilation issues, equipment failures) were identified during this project and will be corrected allowing for a more consistent experience.

What can we expect next?

Systems will continue to be recalibrated over the next several months, with a completion date of March 2025. Campus Utilities has identified a number of thermostats in Mendoza that are reaching their end of life and is actively working on a replacement plan that will move the facility to Direct Digital Control (DDC), which allows for better control and communication with the University’s systems. In the meantime, thermostats are being replaced as they fail or malfunction.

As a reminder, the University thermostat set-point guidelines, which were established in the Spring of 2009 to reduce energy consumption on campus, are as follows: 

• For occupied spaces, sensors maintain each room’s temperature between 70° and 75° during the time of occupancy but allow fluctuations within this range to optimize energy efficiency by minimizing the use of mechanical systems.
• For vacant spaces, temperatures are allowed to fluctuate further for additional energy savings with the range expanding to 67° to 78°. 

Temperatures will adjust accordingly when movement is detected. Please allow 15-30 minutes for the temperature of the space to adapt. If the thermostat in your office/classroom is not responding or cannot maintain the desired temperature, please email MendozaFixIt so that a work order can be created. If the issue persists, a Mendoza Facilities team member will follow up with Campus Controls to resolve the issue. 

We appreciate all of the cooperation in helping us achieve our sustainability goals while creating an environment where everyone can thrive. We are committed to providing a comfortable environment that promotes well-being, drives productivity and creates a positive workplace culture.  

A special thanks to our dedicated Facilities Team: Chad DeWeese, Ron Grisoli and Dana Pierce. Thank you for your hard work, attention to detail and the pride you take in keeping our facilities running smoothly.

Sincerely in Notre Dame,

Tracy

Tracy Biggs
Executive Director, College Operations & Finance