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Building on its heritage of Catholic faith traditions, the Mendoza College of Business deeply rooted mission of social responsibility is finding fresh relevancy in today’s complex global business world. The College offers its students a “big picture” perspective on the incredible power of business to impact the human community for the better through its emphasis on three chief tenets – individual integrity, effective organizations and the greater good. For MBA students, this vision means not only solving some of the toughest problems faced by businesses, but also challenges them to consider solutions that take into account the implications of ethics, sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
This perspective pervades the MBA program, from Day One of orientation to the last of their coursework, from internships to an extensive list of extracurricular activities. During orientation, students and the MBA staff spend a day providing community service to a local nonprofit organization, as well as hear messages from the Mendoza College dean and other University representatives about the service mission of Notre Dame. The MBA Values Statement, which was created and instituted by a group of MBA students, is posted inside every MBA classroom and the College website, along with a description of the Mendoza positioning statement, Ask More of Business™ and its underlying tenets.
All 20 required courses and a notable 143 electives integrate social, ethical or environmental issues. Even as new courses have been added that specifically focus on CSR topics, the standard disciplines of business curricula – such as accountancy, banking and finance – also incorporate the perspective. “Ethical Leadership,” “Sustainable Enterprise,” “Ethics in Finance and Banking,” “Examination of Sustainability” are a few examples of MBA courses addressing CSR. The 2010 Financial Times Global MBA ranked Notre Dame as No. 1 for corporate social responsibility among the top 100 global MBA programs.
The Notre Dame MBA integrates classroom learning with real-life business experiences, which not only adds relevancy but instills a deeper understanding and appreciation for the power of business in action. During Interterm Intensives – an intense, four-day mini-session between quarters – students have the opportunity to experience deep-dive case studies, often involving CSR issues. Recent cases have included an analysis of fair-trade standards, a sustainability program for the nation’s dairies, a marketing campaign for an orphan disease, and a philanthropic campaign for a major coffee company. Other signature courses at the Mendoza College include, “Business on the Frontlines,” which sends teams of students to war-torn countries to examine role of business in rebuilding; and Ten Years Hence, an annual speaker series that brings in top experts to discuss future trends, particularly in the area of sustainability. The 2011 series features a discussion of B-corporations, with executives from Fortune 500 companies.
Case competitions – referred to as the “varsity sport” of the Notre Dame MBA program – provide students with the opportunity to apply their business skills in a number of cases involving issues of sustainability and ethics. Among its recent achievements, the Notre Dame MBA team took first place in the Ninth Annual Leeds Net Impact Case Competition, a sustainability case that examined alternative energy solutions, and the 2009 Latin American Business Challenge hosted by the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, which considered human resource issues in the Mexican labor market.
Our commitment to social responsibility is demonstrated through extracurricular programs and internships. The MBAs participated in internships in South Africa, which involve capacity building for NGOs, as well as supporting entrepreneurial efforts. Students also support CSR initiatives through clubs devoted to particular areas of interest, such as the Notre Dame Energy Club, a forum for those concerned with energy usage and alternative sources. One of many MBA club projects helps the local community with a microfinance project that makes loans to area businesses. In recognition of its commitment to diversity, Mendoza MBA served as lead academic sponsor for the 2010 NSHMBA National Conference and Career Expo, providing career-building skills support to Hispanic job-seekers. Notre Dame was awarded the group’s Brillante Award for its support of Hispanic higher education.
The Mendoza College has two ethics centers devoted to the study of business ethics and related issues. The Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide convenes an annual conference where leading scholars in core business disciplines to identify contemporary ethics questions, with the papers being published in the Journal of Business Ethics. The center also hosts a dissertation competition for young scholars engaged in ethics research. The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business plays an active role with U.N. initiatives, including hosting a spring 2011 conference, “The U.N. Millennium Development Goals, the Global Compact and the Common Good.” Some of the issues discussed are the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa, human and labor rights, and income inequality.
The Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies recognizes the significant role that entrepreneurship has in social ventures and supports these efforts with a dedicated annual business plan competition. Each year, dozens of teams entering the competition are provided with specific business expertise as well as exposure to a large network of established social entrepreneurs from a wide variety of ventures, including bookseller Better World Books and Cambodia-based tour company, PEPY Tours.
The Mendoza faculty continually drives the message of social responsibility through its teaching, scholarship and organized events. Recent faculty research explores topics that examine the critical link between CSR efforts and business operations, such as how carbon emissions relate to firm value, and employee job satisfaction at “green” businesses. A number of studies also consider the use of information technology in improving health care. Groundbreaking research in the area of online marketing to children has provided insights in the national effort to reduce childhood obesity. As information technology continues to reshape the workforce, faculty members are considering diverse issues such as how IT might be used to lower mortality rates in hospitals, and whether personal morality plays a role in preventing computer security breaches.
The global aspect of the College’s focus on social responsibility is fostered through the spirit and commitment of Dean Carolyn Woo, who helped to spearhead the U.N. initiative, Principles for Responsible Management (PRME), which incorporates universal values of the U.N. Global Compact into business school curricula and research. Dean Woo travels worldwide to speak to business groups and NGOs about business ethics and also presented during the U.N. Global Leaders Summit, where results from a major sustainability study were announced. The College played a lead role in organizing the Notre Dame Forum on the topic of “The Global Marketplace and the Common Good,” a year-long event that brings in top experts to discuss issues ranging from the financial meltdown, income inequality and social entrepreneurship.
The vision of the University of Notre Dame is to be a leader in sustainable operations, education and research with a pervasive focus on the connection between environmental stewardship and Catholic Social Teaching. Three strategic goals support this vision: reduce our carbon footprint, reduce waste with a focus on recycling and using less resource, and educate the campus community about sustainability, particularly as it relates to Catholic Social Teaching. The actions and initiatives that support this vision range from fairly simple and pragmatic, to those that have more long-term consequences in terms of integrating sustainability issues into the b-school educational experience.
The Mendoza College of Business continues to work with the Notre Dame Office of Sustainability, which provides guidance and education to improve the campus’ carbon footprint. In 2009, a cross-section of faculty, staff and students attended a half-day workshop, Sustainability at Mendoza, where they learned energy-saving techniques and guidelines. They also were encouraged to use energy-conscious modes of transportation, with special parking considerations being given to those who drive energy-efficient vehicles.
The Sustainability Office subsequently conducted a building audit, which helped to identify habits and practices that could be altered to support sustainability in pragmatic ways. The College previously stocked bottled water for events and everyday use by staff, faculty and students, but discontinued the practice due to the environmental repercussions. The administration increased the number of water coolers in easily accessible areas, and the dean sent messages encouraging the Mendoza community to bring reusable containers and make use of the coolers.
Further, the Mendoza College of Business has made a significant dent in its waste production by installing a café soda fountain in the staff and faculty lounge instead of providing individual cans of soda. In just the first five months of operation, the soda fountain reduced the department’s aluminum can consumption by 7,875 cans. To further reduce waste, staff and faculty are encouraged to use their own reusable drinking cups.
The College utilizes single-stream recycling and provides an increased number of trash receptacles in common areas such as kitchens and lounges, with notices posted giving instructions for appropriate waste disposal. As a result of the building audit, 125 additional recycling receptacles were added throughout the College. Faculty and staff with private offices are encouraged to dispose of trash in recycling receptacles, rather than individual trash cans.
Printing practices also have undergone policy changes. Staff and faculty are encouraged not to routinely print e-mails and other materials, unless necessary. If a document must be printed, they are asked to use the duplex setting, cutting paper use by half. Office copiers are set to energy-savings shut-off modes when not in use. Publications such as the Notre Dame Business alumni magazine are printed on FSC-certified, 50 percent consumer fiber paper, with magazine recipients given the option of receiving an online version rather than a hard copy. Increasingly, newsletters, event invitations and brochures that formerly would be printed and distributed are now offered in digital formats and distributed via e-mail.
In an effort to become as “paperless” as possible, staffers are being trained in new electronic reporting systems hosted by Notre Dame, including TravelND, a travel and expense reporting system intended to reduce the paper trail.
Faculty members are making forays into establishing paperless classrooms by posting syllabi and other course material online. A management faculty member, in coordination with the University IT department, conducted the first pilot of an iPad classroom, where all course materials, including textbooks, were loaded onto the devices and handed to the students for use in the class. For courses using traditional textbooks, students can place their books in Better World Books donation bins that are located throughout the building. The books are either resold or recycled, with a percentage of the proceeds going toward literacy efforts around the world.
In order to establish Notre Dame and the Mendoza College as a thought-leader in the area of sustainability, the College and its programs have instituted a number of courses, conferences and extra-curricular activities that center on the context of sustainability within business operations. In 2009, a group of faculty members from across the disciplines attended a workshop presented by The Natural Step, and continues to serve within the College as a resource for others incorporating sustainability topics into research and teaching, as well as advisors about best practices and innovation in business.
In the classroom, management professors incorporate sustainability into supply chain models. Classes read articles with divergent views about “greening” the supply chain and discuss the varying perspectives, as well as the inexact methodology of quantifying the carbon footprint. Other topics include the synergy between supply chain recycling and product recall, particularly regarding the international component.
Students engage in studying a wide range of current events from a business perspective, including the overharvesting of fish, sustainable forestry, alternative energy and fuel-efficient vehicles. Still other courses are aimed at incorporating sustainability into the standard business disciplines of accounting and finance so that students will enter their careers with a view as to how operations can have an impact while still achieving performance excellence.
In the Notre Dame MBA, courses integrate social, ethical or environmental issues. “Ethical Leadership,” “Sustainable Enterprise,” “Ethics in Finance and Banking,” “Examination of Sustainability” are a few examples of MBA courses addressing CSR. During Interterm Intensives – an intense, four-day mini-session between quarters – students have the opportunity to experience deep-dive case studies, often involving CSR issues. Recent cases have included an analysis of fair-trade standards, a sustainability program for the nation’s dairies. A case involving a major coffee company that has a long-held mission of sustainability was offered as a virtual case competition open to anyone – a novel approach that invited individuals to analyze and engage in a real-life business issue.
Outside the classroom, the “big picture” focus on sustainability carries through the leadership and activities of the College faculty, programs and administrators. In 2010, Mendoza College Dean Carolyn Woo served on the U.N. Leaders Summit plenary panel that introduced the results of a major sustainability study involving more than 700 CEOs of top multinational companies. The College played a lead role in organizing the 2010-2011 Notre Dame Forum on the topic of “The Global Marketplace and the Common Good,” a year-long event that brings in top experts to discuss issues ranging from the financial meltdown, income inequality and social entrepreneurship.
One forum-related event included the Global Corporate Social Responsibility Employer Showcase Luncheon, which was sponsored by the Mendoza College in conjunction with the Notre Dame Office of Sustainability and others. This event partnered the College with Fortune 500 companies working on the front edges of sustainability. In a similar light, the College co-sponsored a Wall Street Forum that brought in experts from some of the largest and most influential financial firms to discuss CSR and investment strategies in the global marketplace.
Perhaps the most public signifier of the Mendoza College’s commitment to sustainability is evidences in its pursuit of a LEED Silver certification for the Stayer Executive Education Center, set to break ground in 2011.
The Ten Years Hence speaker series explores issues, ideas, and trends likely to affect business and society over the next decade. Students, faculty and the community use guest speaker comments as a springboard for structured speculation about emerging issues and the next ten years. The 2010 lecture series focused on the topic of Conscious Capitalism while the 2011 lecture series will focus on the topic of Business for the Common Good.
Maytag historically has enjoyed top ratings as a most preferred brand of appliances with consumers. Today’s environment, however, calls for engaging younger consumers, demands a tailored message, new vehicles and a compelling reason to believe.
In this course, Maytag asks students to uncover ways of challenging the brand to think differently; identify key points of differentiation for the millennial consumer; and create connection opportunities.
Students gain enhanced ability to understand the end-to-end consumer purchase process, sell-through business models, and non-product innovation techniques that enable breakthrough thinking and value-creation for customers and shareholders.
This is an interterm course and, as such, does not have a syllabus.
This course deals with the accounting process used to measure and report economic events. It begins with an overview of how financial statements are constructed and later the emphasis shifts to interpreting and analyzing the financial statements. The course focuses on alternative ways of reporting economic activity and on the different uses that investors, managers, and regulatory agencies may have for financial statement data. The primary focus of the course is a survey of several financial accounting topics. However, it also introduces the role accounting plays in sustainability reporting and basic managerial accounting concepts, including cost behavior, break-even analysis, and inventory costing.
The course, which is offered through our MS Accountancy program, will focus heavily on frauds committed against the organization (occupational fraud) and frauds committed on behalf of the organization (financial statement fraud). Major recent financial statement frauds (e.g., Enron, Worldcom, Tyco) will be analyzed, corporate governance issues will be addressed, computerized data mining approaches will be investigated, and the nature and scope of accounting litigation support services will be studied.
This course uses basic concepts involving options and futures as a springboard for studying risk management and financial engineering. The goal of this course is to provide rigorous applied training that prepares students for employment with firms where derivatives are either of primary or secondary importance. Specific topics include swaps, interest rate forwards and options, advanced derivatives and strategies (e.g., credit derivatives, exotic options), financial risk management techniques (e.g., VAR) and applications, and organizational risk management. Discussion of ethical and/or social issues is encouraged. Topics from the popular press involving the use or misuse of derivatives (e.g., rogue traders, derivatives and the 2008 Financial Crisis) provide opportunities for students to enrich and enliven class discussion.
Advertising Management provides an opportunity to learn the process through which organizations, taking a collaborative, ethical approach to consumers, develop and present messages of value that engage targeted audiences and encourage attitudinal, emotional, and behavioral responses. We focus our critical view on the ways that current advertising campaigns use audience segmentation, audience targeting, and product positioning strategies. We also explore how advertisers can approach gender and new media profitably. The course meetings take the form of case discussions and team presentations, with guest lecturers from the industry. This course is intended for students who anticipate careers as brand managers and as marketing managers. Students should expect to learn to: relate communications goals to revenue, market cap, or sales; to take a collaborative, ethical approach to consumers; to understand the role of media technology (new media) in communications; to work with agencies as clients; and to understand the role of gender in advertising. The professor expects students: to expand their thinking about advertising, especially: culture, ethics, gender, and social media; to make the most of discussion, presentations, and assignments; to contribute to their team; to attend class.
The purpose of this course is to examine the process corporations go through to access public debt markets for their funding needs. Although not covered as a separate topic, the course considers several ethical issues involved in debt issuance: the regulatory environment in which various debt issuers operate; transparency and full disclosure in all aspects of the debt issuance process; the marketing of an issue to investors; Fair Disclosure (FD) requirements; and the due diligence process per the Securities Act of 1933. Additionally, interaction with officials from Morgan Stanley and USG Corporation enriches classroom discussion of ethical and social issues.
This course brings real world brand challenges, thinking and tasks into the classroom. A blend of theory and practical business issues are achieved through case speakers and written analyses.
Business Law for Managers provides the graduate student of business with a general overview of the legal system as that institution relates to the business community. The course's primary focus is on the law of torts, contracts and sales, legal procedure(s), employment law, entity selection and related tax issues.
The objectives of this course are to 1) introduce basic concepts in developmental economics and peace through commerce; 2) delve more deeply into the specific political, cultural, economic and business challenges of a specific war-torn country; 3) investigate, based on a field visit, both the activities of local and/or international businesses in a war-torn region and the positive/negative impact of those business activities. Classes meet for two weekly two-hour seminars both to discuss readings regarding developmental economics and peace through commerce themes and to describe early findings of specific country study. This course includes a field trip in coordination with partner organization (Catholic Relief Services) to Rwanda, Uganda, and Philippines. By the end of the course, students are expected to produce both a project for the partner organization, CRS, and a detailed case study of the positive/negative impact of the activities of local and international businesses in a war-torn region.
The Honorable Tom Ridge is the president and CEO of Ridge Global LLC. As the company's chief executive, he leads a team of international experts that assists businesses and governments in addressing a range of needs throughout their organizations.
Issues including risk management and global trade security, strategic business generation, technology integration, event security, crisis management and campus security and others encompass a diverse portfolio.
Following the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, Tom Ridge became the first Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and, in January 2003, became the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Michael Miller of the Acton Institute will present Morality, Business and the Market Economy.
The annual Notre Dame Forum is a University-wide effort to focus on critical, moral, ethical and humanitarian challenges facing our world. The topics are discussed within a framework informed by the values-based mission of Notre Dame, which empahsizes a concern for the common good.
The 2010-2011 Forum, titled The Global Marketplace and the Common Good, is a year-long conversation on the role of ethics, values and morals in rebuilding and reshaping the global economy. The conversation included speaker Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, who addressed topics such as development of clean-energy technologies, restoring sustainable values, and the economic playing field leveled by globalization.
Additional events included a panel discussion on Morals & Markets: Being Catholic in a Global Economy, The Professions and the Common Good, Technology: Boon or Bane? The Challenges of Employing Technology for the Greater Good, From Charity to Justice: The Truth about Exploiting the Poor, and Senator Evan Bayh, who will speak on Government, Politics and the Common Good.
Terry Keeley, senior managing principal, Sovereign Trends LLC, spoke at the Mendoza College and warned of a crisis of trust that has developed since the financial meltdown of 2008. In addition to distrust of financial markets, he said, polls show that only one in seven Americans believes U.S. authorities will do the right thing most of the time, a record low. The papal encyclical, he said, includes an urgent call for all people of good will to do whatever they can to restore trust in markets and institutions of government.
The Women’s MBA Club, a National Association of Women MBAs chapter, hosted Eileen Botting. Botting, an associate professor of political science, University of Notre Dame addressed gender and professionalism issues.
The Hesburgh Award for Business Ethics annually honors organizational leaders who integrate concerns for ethics and values in their business practices. Criteria for selecting the annual recipient include student-written support of chief executive officers who exemplify best practices.
In 2010, the Hesburgh Award for Exemplary Ethical, Environmental, Social and Governance Practices was presented to Armin Broger on behalf of his company, Levi Strauss & Co.
Broger, a 1986 alumnus of the Notre Dame MBA program, serves as president of Levi Strauss, Europe. The apparel company Levi Strauss was nominated for the award for two areas of contribution. In 1991, Levi Strauss became the first multinational apparel company to extend a comprehensive code of conduct beyond its own facilities, to its suppliers to provide the individuals making their products worldwide with safe and healthy working conditions. In 2010, Levi Strauss became the first major retailer to include messaging encouraging consumers to donate used clothing on its product care tags.
The “A Care Tag for Our Planet” program is a partnership with Goodwill Industries that empowers consumers to participate in their mission to reduce waste and increase the life cycle of clothing.
The mission of the Making A Living, Making A Difference program is to inform students about employment opportunities in the public and nonprofit sector.
The partners on campus who sponsor this event are: The Career Center, The Kellogg Program, The department of Political Science, The Law School, The Higgins Labor Institute, The Center for Social Concerns, and The Master of Nonprofit Administration Program.
Annually, this event hosts a keynote speaker from a major nonprofit organization whose expertise, impact, and dedication to the sector is wide spread. The 2011 keynote speaker will be Bill Jordan.
The Invention Convention is a program co-hosted by the Mendoza College of Business and the Robinson Community Learning Center.
Throughout the year, Mendoza's Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and the Learning Center work with young people from South Bend high schools to enhance their business, academic and life skills through an entrepreneurship curriculum provided by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). The program seeks to cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurialism by providing innovative learning experiences, both within and outside of the classroom, relevant to the entrepreneurial world. At year-end, participants take part in this annual business plan competition, where prizes are awarded to the top entries.
MBA students act as mentors and competition judges. The event culminates with judging in April when the high school students present business plans to a panel of undergraduate and graduate Notre Dame students.
The MBA Program and Master of Nonprofit Administration Program co-sponsored the Third Annual Nonprofit Roundtable featuring nonprofit speakers addressing careers in the non-profit sector.
Attendees from the local area included more than 70 students from the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Indiana University (South Bend campus).
Speakers included:
* Angela Cobb, Chief Diversity office for Teach for America;
* Jane Hunter, Executive Director of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra;
* Hodge Patel, District Director for Indiana Congressman Joe Donnelly; and
* Frances Shavers, Chief of Staff and Special Assistant to Notre Dame President John I. Jenkins, CSC.
The fall Berges lecture series features an opening faculty panel discussion followed by a series of lectures delivered by senior executives from major corporations addressing current ethical issues in business.
In the series-opening panel dsicussions, faculty members from across the College's departments debate topics such as empowered business integrity and developing an ethical leadership culture (2010), and the ethical implications of the recent financial crisis and corporate responsiblity of multinational corporations (2009).
Executives speaking in subsequent lectures have included:
- John Russell, Relative Value Partners, Chicago and former Salomon Brothers and Citicorp executive,
- Neville Isdell, Chairman of the Coca Cola Company,
- John E. Rooney, CEO, U.S. Cellular,
- John Montgomery, CEO, Bridgeway Capital Management.
The series is presented by Notre Dame's Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business and Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide.
Speaking at Mendoza on Nov. 1, Bart Chilton, Commissioner for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), described provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which, among other things, grants Chilton’s commission a mandate to limit how much of the market a single trader can control. The restrictions were scheduled to take effect in energy and metals markets starting in January followed by agricultural commodities in mid-April 2011.
He mentioned that some futures-market investors are resisting the impending rule changes and requesting exemptions or delays in the law’s implementation.
Chilton’s visit was sponsored by Mendoza’s Center for the Study of Financial Regulation, which was created to encourage rigorous study of the economics of financial regulation.
The annual McCloskey Business Blan Competition is intended for traditional entrepreneurial ventures that have not yet been launched or are at the earliest stages of being launched.
Weekend Student Adventures, the winner of the 10th annual McCloskey Business Plan Competition, is a multi-phased, multi-faceted business approach that will cater to the American college student studying abroad. The venture will offer guided destination weekend and week-long packages that feature the optimal balance of educational touring and enjoyable social networking opportunities. Through establishing both a physical location and online service, Weekend Student Adventures plans to partner with stateside universities in order to attract students as its customer base.
Violence clearly transforms persons and communities. Violence is also transformed by those same, affected persons and communities, as they struggle to live in its wake or under its continued threat.
In July, 2010, faculty from the Mendoza College of Business served on the panel that considered the following questions:
What sort of artistic, expressive forms and cultural formations result from the experience of violence?
How do they give and conceal evidence of their violent genesis?
What determines whether or not a cultural form puts violence to rest, keeps it at bay, perpetuates it, or awakens its reappearance in yet another, related form?
Can the “art” of violence become the work of peace? If so, how and under what conditions?
Beginning when students first arrive on campus for orientation, MBAs are introduced to the mission of Mendoza College of Business, which emphasizes a commitment to integrity and giving back to the community. Included in orientation is an hour-long session where each student is given the opportunity to pledge to contribute a minimum a designated number of hours to community service during their time at Notre Dame. Community service opportunities are arranged by the Net Impact club.
In 2009, the MBA orientation was redesigned to address one of the five MBA values (community and responsibilty, excellence, integrity, leadership, and spirituality) on each day. Students heard a presentations on the power of community and on business principles applied to nonprofits. Following the presentations, the students divided into groups spent the remainder of the day assisting at local service organizations.
Thirty Notre Dame MBA students attended the 2010 Net Impact Conference, which focused on innovative ideas to propel toward a more sustainable decade.
The conference featured the following speakers:
• Majora Carter (The Majora Carter Group, LLC) shared inspirational stories of how greening local communities contributes to global “home(town) security” and wider economic revival.
• Kim Jeffery (Nestle Waters North America), William McDonough (Cradle to Cradle), and moderator Marc Gunther (FORTUNE) joined us for one of the liveliest keynote discussions in our conference history. Diving head-first into the controversial issue of how to make bottled water more sustainable, they explored the complexities and most promising solutions in green design and recycling innovation.
• Gary Hirshberg (Stonyfield Farm) shared compelling examples of our broken food system and why it’s urgent to feed the world in a better, more sustainable way. He shared how Stonyfield is working to change the paradigm, while still returning significant year-over-year profits.
• Additional great keynotes from David Blood (Generation Investment Management) • Aron Cramer (BSR) • Susan Cischke (Ford) • Rose Kirk (Verizon) • James Walsh (University of Michigan) • Srikant Datar (Harvard) • Judith Samuelson (Aspen Institute)."
The topic of the 2009 GE Live forum hosted by the University of Notre Dame was “Winning in Today’s World.” GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt and Chief Financial Officer and Notre Dame alumnus Keith Sherin participated in the interactive forum at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.
The event, moderated by CNBC's Mary Thompson, was simulcast live to six additional business schools at Georgetown, Indiana, Duke and Dartmouth; INSEAD in France and IESE in Spain.
Students from each school had opportunities to ask questions of the GE executives during the 1-1/2 hour session. Most of the questions concerned the lessons learned by GE and the financial industry during the recent financial crisis, as well as what advice Immelt and Sherin had for MBAs just starting their careers.
For companies including GE, rebuilding trust starts with a foundation of competitiveness and integrity. Sherin and Immelt emphasized that transparency regarding the company’s financial status is critical, particularly regarding CEO pay, and that establishing a culture of clear values supported by an infrastructure that picks up the “red flags” is key.
The GE executives emphasized that the development of green energy is critical for the future of the global economy. The company’s ecomagination program is dedicated to applying innovative technology to solving environmental challenges. The program comprises GE efforts in such areas as wind energy and smart-grid technology.
A panel of representatives from Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and the Notre Dame Investment Office discussed with MBA and other students CSR and Investment Strategy in the Global Marketplace.
This event was part of the larger Notre Dame Forum, which has as its theme this year The Global Marketplace and the Common Good.
Michael Novak, Director of Social and Political Studies and the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy and Public Policy, American Enterprise Institute spoke at Mendoza College of Business discussing his book ""Business As a Calling," which continues Novak's project of illuminating the philosophical, political, economic, and religious dimensions of the free society. Begun in 1982 with his book, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism,
Michael Novak delivers the "Business As a Calling" speech annually to business law students. The event is open to the public as well. The speech is co-sponsored by the Mendoza College of Business and the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.
A case study examining Domino’s response to a video prank that compromised consumer trust in the Domino’s brand has been awarded Grand Prize in the Arthur W. Page Society’s 2010 Case Study Competition, sponsored by the Page Society and the Institute for Public Relations. The objective of the Case Study Competition is to promote practical applications of corporate communications as a critical management function for building trust.
Two MBA students at the University of Notre Dame, Mendoza School of Business, received recognition in 2010 for best overall submission for their case study: Domino’s “Special Delivery” Going Viral Through Social Media. The study examines how social media platforms have changed traditional communications processes and the impact these networks have on corporate communications and corporate reputation.
In addition to the Grand Prize winner, there were two first-place winners from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Alabama, two second-place winners from the University of Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina and one third-place winner from Syracuse University. Each winner was awarded a cash prize.
The Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies hosted a presentation: "BRINGING CLEAN WATER TO THE WORLD: A Presentation by Serial Entrepreneur and AQUAVIDA Founder Jason Gonzales."
He talked about his path to, and the founding of, AQUAVIDA, a Chicago-based international company that specializes in providing clean water to people in emergent nations. AquaVida drills fresh-water wells and forms partnerships with businesses, government agencies, churches, higher education, and citizens of the nations it serves to ensure that everyone has access to the basic human right of clean and safe water.
Social Impact: Evaluating the trade off between personal privacy and the common good.
Recently the popular press has given considerable attention to the debate surrounding the digitization of personal medical information. Something as seemingly innocuous as transforming a paper medical chart into an electronic format so that it can be stored in a database and made available to other parties electronically would seem to be of little interest or concern to the American public. Yet, consumer privacy-advocacy groups have been actively and vociferously lobbying federal and local governments to take a formal position on not only the legality of this action, but also asking them to take into account the perceived wishes of the American public. As this debate continues, some health care providers, insurers, laboratories, pharmacies, and other healthcare stakeholders continue to create and retroactively digitize our medical information with the unambiguous endorsement of the federal government. Some argue that these enormous databases of medical information offer improved access to timely information, evidence-based treatments, and complete records from which to provide care. To the extent that these claims are true, it would seem that this is a valuable asset that offers immeasurable benefit to all. Drawing on a theoretical base of social dilemmas, I investigate the research question, Should individuals consider their private health information a public good, in which case the decision to allow its digitization poses an intriguing social dilemma?
Social Impact Management: Investigates the top-down influence of manager empathy on employee well-being.
In a daily diary study, the authors investigated the top-down influence of manager empathy on a process model of employee well-being. Sixty employees supervised by one of 13 managers completed a daily survey for 2 weeks, producing a total of 436 observations. Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed that, at the daily level, employees who reported somatic complaints made less progress on their goals and felt lower levels of positive affect and higher levels of negative affect. At the group level, cross-level main and interactive effects of manager empathy were observed, such that groups of employees with empathic managers experienced lower average levels of somatic complaints, and daily goal progress was more strongly related to positive affect for groups of employees with empathic managers. We discuss the implications of these results for the emerging literature on leaders as managers of group emotion.
Business & Law: Evaluating trends in accounting law and standards. This paper addresses the issues that confront the FASB and IASB in developing a new conceptual framework document. First, we suggest characteristics that a conceptual framework ought to exhibit. Most of these suggestions are based on our critique of the existing framework and the FASB-IASB work in progress. Second, we present a model framework that exhibits these characteristics. We emphasize up front that this framework is quite explicit. It goes to the heart of what a framework document should do: it places specific restrictions on what constitutes admissible accounting standards. The purpose of our effort is to stimulate broad discussion of alternative approaches to foundational documents and to offer a specific example of such an alternative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR].
Business Ethics: An examination of ethics-related terms used in 10-K annual reports.
We examine the occurrence of ethics- related terms in 10-K annual reports over 1994–2006 and offer empirical observations on the conceptual framework of Erhard et al. (Integrity: A Positive Model that Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics, and Legality (Harvard Business School, Harvard) 2007). We use a pre-Sarbanes-Oxley sample subset to compare the occurrence of ethics-related terms in our 10-K data with samples from other studies that consider virtue-related phenomena. We find that firms using ethics-related terms are more likely to be “sin” stocks, are more likely to be the object of class action lawsuits, and are more likely to score poorly on measures of corporate governance. The consistency of our results across these alternative measures of ethical behavior suggests that managers who portray their firm as “ethical” in 10-K reports are more likely to be systematically misleading the public. These results are consistent with the integrity-performance paradox.
Sustainable Finance: examination of how social influence affects trading and stock returns.
I test whether social influence affects individual investors’ trading and stock returns. In each of the 20 most active stocks in Finland over 9 years, the number of owners in a municipality multiplied by the number of investors who do not own a stock, a measure of the rate of transmission of diseases and rumors through social contact, predicts individual investor trading. I control for known determinants of trade, including daily news, and show that competing explanations for the relation are unlikely. Socially motivated trades predict stock returns, and the effects are not reversed, suggesting that individuals share useful information. Individuals’ susceptibility to social influence has declined during the period, but the opportunities for social influence have increased.
Ethics: Assessing methods for business ethics curriculum.
The study explores outcomes associated with a business ethics curriculum over an intervention with undergraduate business students - completion of a required course in the conceptual foundations of business ethics. A case study analysis provided results that were coded using a rubric based on the Four Component Model of Morality and address development of moral reasoning capacity. Initial findings indicate statistically significant change in each of four categories of analysis of the case response, related to the moral development scale. Findings are useful in assessing outcomes, suggesting curriculum design and providing information for further research of moral reasoning with business students.
Social Impact Management: Examines the effects of mental ability on economic, physical and subjective well-being.
This study tested a structural model explaining the effects of general mental ability on economic, physical, and subjective well-being. A model was proposed that linked general mental ability to well-being using education, unhealthy behaviors (smoking and excessive drinking), occupational prestige, and health as mediating variables. The sample consisted of 398 individuals, from whom measures were collected across 4 periods. The results supported a model that includes direct and indirect (through unhealthy behaviors and occupational prestige) links from mental ability to physical well-being (i.e., health) and economic well-being. Furthermore, the results supported the relationships of economic well-being and physical well-being to subjective well-being. Overall, the study underscores the importance of general mental ability to work and nonwork outcomes, including physical, economic, and psychological well-being.
Business and Law: Explores how analysts' forecasts vary as audit tenure lengthens.
This study examines the relation between audit tenure and how clients manage the annual earnings surprise. Recent evidence indicates a propensity by managers to report earnings in excess of analysts’ forecasts. Negative earnings surprises are to be avoided because they can adversely affect both stock price and assessments of managerial performance. Managers therefore have incentives to manage reported earnings upward and analysts’ forecasts downward. A firm’s annual audit, however, is designed to constrain earnings misstatements. For those firms seeking to avoid negative earnings surprises, the annual audit may limit upward earnings management thus causing firms to turn to downward forecast management to avoid negative earnings surprises. Nonetheless, audit effectiveness in constraining earnings overstatements is likely to be less than uniform across the tenure of auditor/client relationships. Our empirical results suggest a substitution of downward forecast guidance for upward earnings management as audit tenure lengthens.
Diversity: Culture & Ethics: Explores strategies for building trust with Japanese customers.
While evidence suggests trust plays a fundamental role in maintaining successful buyer–seller relationships in Japan, little is known conceptually as to how foreign sellers can best develop trust in the minds of their Japanese customers. In this research, we develop and test a multi-component model of US seller actions that manifest key trust-building processes (intentionality- and capability-processes) which sellers find effective in building trust with their Japanese buyers. In this unique cultural context, theory suggests trust develops when sellers demonstrate benevolent intentions toward the buyer and exhibit a strong capability to fulfill business promises. An analysis of 181 US sellers in Japan demonstrates that a combination of trust-building efforts is recognized as being critical in seller attempts to develop and sustain trust on the part of their Japanese customers. Importantly, cultural sensitivity mediates the impact of intentionality-based practices on buyer trust, while capability-based activities directly influence trust.
Ethics: Exploring trends in marketing ethics.
This article summarizes several pieces of good news and bad news regarding the development of business and marketing ethics. The author concludes on an optimistic note and he indicates that he is hopeful that more attention will be given to marketing ethics issues in the Business Ethics Quarterly in the years to come.
Environmental Management: Explores the relationships among various kinds of stress, citizenship and counterproductive behavior.
The authors combined affective events theory (H. M. Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and the transactional stress model (R. S. Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) to build and test a model specifying the dynamic, emotion-based relationships among challenge and hindrance stressors and citizenship and counterproductive behaviors. The study employed an experience sampling methodology. Results showed that challenge stressors had offsetting indirect links with citizenship behaviors through attentiveness and anxiety and a positive indirect effect on counterproductive behaviors through anxiety. Hindrance stressors had a negative indirect effect on citizenship behaviors through anxiety and a positive indirect effect on counterproductive behaviors through anxiety and anger. Finally, multilevel moderating effects showed that the relationship between hindrance stressors and anger varied according to employees' levels of neuroticism.
Diversity: Women: Exploring character development in business education in single sex environment.
This study questions the widely held assumption, particularly in the United States, that coeducation is best. Previous research supports the development of single-sex education for both female and male students. This study examines how the learning climate of the coeducation environment seems to affect the character development of female business students. Female business students from 11 single-sex colleges (secular and religious) perceived more reinforcement in 13 of 21 character traits than female (and male) students in 3 coeducational institutions. Several of these character traits are related to ethical behavior, such as honesty, compassion, and independence, and are sorely needed in the workplace. Improved ethics education may enable women to play a larger role in avoiding future ethical crises.
Ethics: A comparison of companies' codes of ethics reveals troubling copycatting.
We create a database of company codes of ethics from firms listed on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and, separately, a sample of small firms. The SEC believes that "ethics codes do, and should, vary from company to company." Using textual analysis techniques, we measure the extent of commonality across the documents. We find substantial levels of common sentences used by the firms, including a few cases where the codes of ethics are essentially identical. We consider these results in the context of legal statements versus value statements. While legal writing often mandates duplication, we argue that value-based statements should be held to a higher standard of originality.
Social Impact Management: Examination of perceptions of organizational politics and eprceptions of leader effectiveness on the relationship between core self-evaluations and job performance.
Using trait activation theory as a framework, the authors examined the moderating role of two situational variables-perceptions of organizational politics and perceptions of leader effectiveness-on the relationship between core self-evaluations and job performance. Results from two samples (N = 137 and N = 226) indicate that employee perceptions of their work environment moderated the relationship between their core self-evaluations and supervisor ratings of their performance. In particular, those with higher core self-evaluations received higher performance ratings in environments perceived as favorable than in environments perceived as unfavorable.
Corporate Social Responsibility: Measuring the effectiveness of counter-marketing and demarketing of weapons to combat the diversion of firearms into illegal markets.
Few marketing problems in society lead to the tragedy of harm that can result when firearms are diverted from the legal to the illegal marketplace. Product diversion is itself a serious concern for marketers, especially marketers of potentially dangerous products such as tobacco, alcohol, firearms, and pharmaceuticals. These products may be sought and obtained by consumers occupying illegal markets, or intent on using them for illegal purposes, leading to adverse consequences for other consumers, marketers and society at large. Drawing on established marketing principles and accepted methods of forensic research, this paper reports on a large-scale study of the diversion of handguns in the U.S. and the countermarketing and demarketing efforts of firearm marketers to safeguard against its occurrence through their distribution systems. The findings suggest that: (1) significant diversion of handguns to illegal markets occurred in the U.S. during a recent period, (2) industry marketers varied widely in their use of safeguards against this diversion, but on average engaged in few countermarketing and demarketing measures, and (3) the safeguarding efforts engaged in were found to both reduce diversion and its resultant crimes. The study and its findings help to inform understanding of the nature and effects of firearm diversion and the use of countermarketing and demarketing safeguards to reduce its occurrence. The study also demonstrates the use of data and data collection methodologies from the legal process to inform questions about marketing including controversial aspects of its practice. Overall, the research adds to extant thinking concerning countermarketing and demarketing as well as the related areas of social marketing, corporate responsibility and public health.
Ethics: Examines ethical issues related to planned obsolescence strategies.
Three decades ago, planned obsolescence was a widely discussed ethical issue in marketing classrooms. Planned obsolescence is topical again today because an increasing emphasis on continuous product development promotes shorter durables replacement and disposal cycles with troublesome environmental consequences. This paper offers explanations of why product obsolescence is practiced and why it works. It then examines the ethical responsibilities of product developers and corporate strategists and their differing responses to this problem. Pro-environment product design and marketing practices and innovative government policies may alleviate the problem over time. However, given the current lack of understanding about consumer replacement and disposal behavior, it is questionable as to whether these practices and policies will be sufficiently informed to be effective. Thus, marketing scholars have a significant opportunity to contribute to sustainable durables product development.
Business & Law: Studying how firms discipline leaders after accounting restatements.
This study examines whether boards discipline CEOs and CFOs more severely for accounting restatements after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). The disciplinary actions I focus on are job termination and reductions in bonus payouts. Boards have incentive to take the highly visible action of terminating a manager to satisfy demands by outsiders for more vigilant corporate governance after SOX. However, terminating an executive entails the risk of hiring an inferior replacement and other costs. Imposing these costs on the firm and shareholders may not be justified after SOX because the severity of the restatements declines significantly. Despite the pressure on boards to appear vigilant, I find that when disciplining CEOs after SOX, boards gravitate away from termination and toward bonus penalties, a development commensurate with the less severe restatements of the post-SOX period. In contrast, boards appear to strengthen disciplinary action against CFOs after SOX despite the decline in restatement severity.
Business & Law: Examining techniques for improving and deterring information technology breaches.
Research from the fields of criminology and social psychology suggests that the deterrent effect of security countermeasures is not uniform across individuals. In this study, we examine whether certain individual characteristics (i.e., computer self-efficacy) or work arrangement (i.e., virtual status) moderate the influence of␣security policies, security education, training, and awareness (SETA) program, and computer monitoring on information systems misuse. The results suggest that computer savvy individuals are less deterred by SETA programs and computer monitoring, while these countermeasures are also less influential (from a deterrence perspective) on employees that spend more working days outside the office. Implications for both the research and practice of information security are discussed.
Public Policy: Findings suggest that accounting scandals may be localized and that individual industries should be targeted for particular accounting regulations.
Arthur Andersen’s reputation was tarnished following news that its Houston office had shredded documents related to the auditing of energy giant Enron. Earlier studies documented widespread spillover of the reputation effect, suggesting a strong commonality in Big 5 audit practices. We examine whether the market is more discriminating in its assessments. We focus on the roles industry specialization of auditors and the geography of clients’ audit offices play in accounting for the contagion. Our results are supportive of investors who differentiate audit practices by industry and who account for the location of the specific office where the audit work is done. We find that losses suffered by energy firms or firms located close to Houston are equivalent to approximately 90% of the aggregate abnormal losses suffered by Big 5 clients. Our evidence suggests the possibility of more localized impact of accounting scandals and supports accounting regulations targeted at individual industries.
Business and Law: Study examins accounting irregularities and how firms manage earnings reports.
Prior research has separately examined pretax earnings management activities that have current taxable income consequences (book-tax 'conforming earnings management') and those that do not have current taxable income consequences (book-tax 'nonconforming earnings management'). Our study documents the prevalence of, and then investigates the firm-specific characteristics that impact the choice between, these earnings management strategies. We utilize a sample of firms that restated their earnings downward due to accounting irregularities and thus can be presumed to have managed earnings upward. We find that nonconforming earnings management is more prevalent and that firms trade off the net present value of tax benefits against the net expected detection costs associated with nonconforming earnings management. In particular, firms having NOL carryforwards, using a high quality auditor, or engaging in the most egregious misstatements rely less on nonconforming earnings management strategies. We also find that book-tax differences are useful in predicting restatements.
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