Notre Dame Startup News, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Mendoza MBA Student’s Tech Startup Secures $600K Investment – Mendoza Ideas & News
Notre Dame University’s Mendoza College of Business recently profiled current student Cory Bailey ’18, whose startup SecūrSpace is to trucks and shipping containers what Airbnb is to housing.
Bailey explains that SecūrSpace, which recently secured a $600,000 investment, attempts to provide an effective solution to the issue of temporary storage sites outside of normal shipping routes.
It’s not uncommon in the shipping world for trucks to tack on an additional 50-mile trip to a temporary storage site, Bailey explained to Mendoza Ideas & News. “And so these trucks are taking these containers way outside of L.A. and New York and other port cities because they’ve got nowhere to put them,” he said.
Thanks to the aforementioned donation, which mostly came from a Notre Dame alum, Bailey hopes to expand his project in the near future.
You can read more about Bailey and SecūrSpace here.
How a Room’s Lighting Shapes Our Decisions – Kellogg Insights
Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management assistant professor of marketing Ping Dong and Feinberg School of Medicine associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Dorothy Sit recently published new research that explores how a simple thing like lighting “can change how likely we are to make pleasurable versus practical decisions.”
Dong writes, “Ambient light is a very important experience that is easily manipulated. This shows a new psychological consequence of darkness—consumers more often choose the option that provides immediate pleasure.”
According to the article, there’s a very real possibility that “consumers are also more likely to make pleasurable choices in darker settings—reaching for a candy bar instead of an apple, or buying trendy high heels instead of practical flats—not because they feel physically hidden, but because that feeling of psychological distance frees them to do what they really want.”
You can read more about the duo’s curious research here.
Linking Sustainability, Corporate Governance, and Gender – Quinlan School of Business Blog
Starting next month, Quinlan School of Business management professor Anne Reilly will present ongoing research into “significance of gender diversity in corporate sustainability governance” at several international conferences this year.
Reilly explains that for the second paper, she and her team found that “almost half of the companies studied have at least one person as a designated sustainability leader, and over 50 percent of these leaders are women—compared to the typical 25 percent representation of women executives.”
She elaborates, “Companies are continuing to develop governance roles dedicated to sustainability, and this accountability should strengthen their strategic emphasis on this critical issue. Further, the presence of women leaders as active change agents for sustainability supports progress in gender diversity and inclusion in executive governance.”
Read more about Reilly’s research here.
About the Author
Jonathan Pfeffer
Jonathan Pfeffer joined the Clear Admit and MetroMBA teams in 2015 after spending several years as an arts/culture writer, editor, and radio producer. In addition to his role as contributing writer at MetroMBA and contributing editor at Clear Admit, he is co-founder and lead producer of the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. He holds a BA in Film/Video, Ethnomusicology, and Media Studies from Oberlin College.
