Business Ethics and Society Program - Notre Dame Business Mendoza College of Business

“Authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate

"Business is a noble vocation." Pope Francis, Laudato Si'

To foster and support scholarship and teaching that explores how business can contribute to integral human development, and to educate business leaders who seek to cooperate with all stakeholders in society in solidarity, competing towards excellence both internally toward the best version of themselves and externally in the marketplace.

Apply for the BESP Fellows Program here

Apply for the International Business Fellows Program here

Apply for the Business and the Common Good Minor here

To create an academic and intellectual community investigating normative business ethics by drawing on the disciplines of theology, philosophy, law, economics, policy, psychology, history, and other disciplines.

As a leading business school guided by the University’s Catholic identity, the Mendoza College of Business seeks to grow the good in business to improve the human condition in an ever-changing society. Through impactful research and educational programs, we contribute to the formation of ethical business leaders who integrate the mind and the heart, and have the competence to see and the courage to act.

"Thus every economic decision has a moral consequence." Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate

The Business Ethics and Society Program (BESP) was created by the Mendoza College of Business’s Dean’s Office upon approval by the College Council on September 24, 2021.

The BESP provides an interdisciplinary home for faculty whose scholarship and teaching addresses questions such as:

What is the moral purpose of business, and how can one live out one’s vocation in business?
How can business contribute to a more just and humane world, to a more inclusive world, and to a more sustainable world?
How can business ensure that everyone in society, especially those with the greatest needs, benefits from business?
How can we best prepare our students to conduct business ethically, to grow as persons in virtue through business, and to help others do the same?

Such normative business ethics questions are a key part of business research and teaching. Achieving the Mendoza College of Business’s (MCOB) mission to “build a premier Catholic business school that fosters academic excellence, professional effectiveness and personal accountability in a context that strives to be faithful to the ideals of community, human development and individual integrity” requires that we be thought leaders in this critical intellectual space. The BESP contributes to the MCOB’s distinctiveness and reflects its home in Notre Dame’s own distinctive mission to be a top teaching and research university with a mission informed by its Catholic identity.

The BESP will foster an interdisciplinary academic and intellectual community to pursue such questions at the highest level, promote scholarly collaboration between MCOB and other units of the University, and fortify the MCOB’s place at the forefront of scholarly investigations of business ethics and society.

The BESP also provides the central administrative home for organizing and coordinating business ethics and business and society research and teaching in MCOB. The BESP’s goals include enabling MCOB to attract top interdisciplinary scholars; exposing students to thought leadership in business ethics, law, policy, regulation, and related disciplines in connection to business; promoting interdisciplinary collaborations across the College and across the University; becoming recognized by MCOB peers as a thought leader on issues at the intersection of business ethics and society; and enhancing MCOB’s distinctiveness among the nation’s premier schools of business.

The BESP’s leadership and affiliated faculty actively seek out opportunities for collaboration, co-authorship, co-teaching, and co-sponsorship with departments, centers, institutes, and other relevant units across both MCOB and the University.

“Development cannot be limited to mere economic growth. In order to be authentic, it must be complete: integral, that is, it has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man.” Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio

The central curricular offerings of the Business Ethics and Society Program are: (1) its undergraduate minor, “Business and the Common Good”; and (2) its BESP Fellows Program.

The Minor in Business and the Common Good (BCG) is an intellectual community of students and faculty who share a special interest in the philosophical and theological foundations of careers in business and of citizenship in a commercial society. BCG comprises 15 credit hours, and includes the following elements: the Mendoza course “Why Business?”, which fulfills the University requirement for a second Philosophy; the Mendoza course “The Noble Vocation of Business”, which fulfills the University requirement for a second Theology; the Mendoza seminar “Business and the Common Good,” cross-listed with Philosophy, which fulfills the University requirement for a second writing course; two 1.5 credit-hour Colloquia that extend and enrich the conversations pursued in BCG; and one approved 3-credit elective in BCG from the list of courses selected for their contribution to the intellectual goals of the Minor.

The BESP Fellows Program (formerly O’Hara Scholars Program) admits around 30 students a year from the Mendoza College of Business, chosen in a competitive application process in the spring semester. BESP Fellows supplement the standard course of business studies with a deeper appreciation of the philosophical, theological, and moral foundations of business careers and commercial society. This 1.5 credit-hour colloquium is a seminar-style, small group program each semester that includes catered dinners, special guest lectures, and fascinating discussions.

Faculty affiliated or associated with the Business Ethics and Society Program

Professor Mary Hirschfeld

Academic Director of the Business Ethics and Society Program, John T. Ryan Jr. Associate Professor of Theology and Business Ethics

Professor David O'Connor

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Professor James Otteson

John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics, Faculty Director of the Business Honors Program

Professor John Sikorski

Assistant Teaching Professor

Professor Ann Tenbrunsel

Chair of Management and Organization and Associated Faculty Member

Fr. Ollie Williams, C.S.C.

Associated Faculty Member

Professor Gregory Robson

Coordinator of the BESP Fellows Program and Visiting Assistant Research Professor - Mendoza

Are you interested in:

Working or collaborating with the BESP?
Minoring in “Business and the Common Good”?
Learning more about the BESP Fellows Program?

Or, do you have questions about the BESP, its minor or programs, or about anything else related to its purpose, vision, mission, or activities? Please reach out!