Academy of Management recognizes Notre Dame professor with early career award

University of Notre Dame professor John Busenbark co-authored a study that was the first to find that, contrary to conventional logic, a public corporate scandal doesn’t necessarily lead to firing the top executive.

In fact, “How the severity gap influences the effect of top actor performance on outcomes following a violation,” published in the Strategic Management Journal, showed that when media or public perceptions of a scandal outpace its actual severity, strong-performing leaders are more likely to keep their jobs. (Read more about the study.) Busenbark, an Assistant Professor of Management & Organization at Mendoza College of Business, was recognized for his career research efforts with the 2021 Lawrence R. James Early Career Award from the Research Methods Division of the Academy of Management. The award recognizes a scholar who has made distinguished contributions to research methods scholarship, practice, and education during the individual’s early career stage, which is defined as within seven years of receiving a doctoral degree. Busenbark, who joined Notre Dame in 2019 and teaches strategic management, researches in the areas of corporate governance and research methods. Within corporate governance, he studies the information economics of how managers can alleviate unfavorable reactions to negative events in their organizations by voluntarily disclosing information to capital market participants. His co-authored paper “Divided We Fall: How Ratios Undermine Research in Strategic Management,” published in Organizational Research Methods, was recognized with the 2020 Best Paper in Organizational Research Methods Award. He earned an MBA with a concentration in finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a Ph.D. in strategic management from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.