2020 Best Undergraduate Business Professors: Daniel Fernandes, Catholic University of Portugal

Daniel Fernandes

Associate Professor of Marketing

Catholic University of Portugal, Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics

Daniel Fernandes is a marketing professor at the Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, where he has been a professor since 2013. Fernandes has won multiple research and writing awards and focuses on financial decision making and consumer memory. He has already gained nearly 2,000 Google Scholar citations, including about 1,500 since 2015.

A sports enthusiast, Fernandes says his main hobbies are playing any sport and spending time with his wife and two daughters. If he wasn’t a business school professor, Fernandes says he’d be a Judo instructor or teach another sport.

Current age: 36

At current institution since what year? 2013

Education: Ph.D. in Marketing, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

List of courses you currently teach: Consumer Behavior, Consumer Psychology, Marketing Management, and executive education seminars on consumer behavior.

LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when… it was not a one-time realization, but shaped over classes and mentors I had.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it?

Consumers have difficulty remembering things (what they learned in finance courses, the products they need to buy), they are biased by many factors (language, information, context), and they are very much influenced by the values they hold (their moral values and political ideology).

If I weren’t a business school professor, I’d be… a Judo instructor, or some other sport teacher.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?

I try to make it easy to learn.

One word that describes my first time teaching: anxious!

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: sometimes less content is more.

Professor I most admire and why: My Ph.D. advisors, Stijn van Osselaer and Stefano Puntoni, and John Lynch for being so kind and generous with mentorship, for doing impactful research, and for being enthusiastic about teaching.

TEACHING BUSINESS SCHOOL STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?

I enjoy most to see the students that are motivated to learn.

What is most challenging?

Students oftentimes have too much going on in their lives that they have a hard time to commit to classes, structure their goals and focus on the present.

In one word, describe your favorite type of student: Motivated

In one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Impolite

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… fair.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies?

I love spending time with my wife and our two daughters. I also love to play any sport.

How will you spend your summer?

Playing with my children.

Favorite place(s) to vacation: anywhere close to the ocean.

Favorite book(s): Guns, germs and steel. Thinking fast and slow. Predictably irrational. Superforecasting.

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?

So many: La vita è bella, Sister Act, White man can’t jump. I like funny movies.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why?

Any type. I love music.

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… reading, reflection and exchange of ideas.

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… improving the financial well-being of employees.

I’m grateful for… being healthy.

Faculty, students, alumni, and/or administrators say:

“Amazing lecturer with a kind heart always willing to help students that are struggling and at the same time allows excellent teaching by challenging student for higher achievements. Also, he is one of the most friendly Professors I have ever met, as a staff member from Católica-Lisbon it is amazing to see how a Professor can balance the rigor, sharpness and the human part of the challenge to teach in one of the best business schools in Europe. It is an honor to nominate Daniel Fernandes as one of the Best Undergraduate Professors!”

“Daniel Fernandes has been my professor for the course of marketing management during my MSc at Catòlica-Lisbon. I think that he deserves the nomination as best professor in poets and quants for his very good teaching skills and style, enthusiasm about his job and lectures and relationship with students. During the course, he has always encouraged students to share their opinions and thoughts, creating a very good learning environment. He had the ability to explain and demonstrate clearly marketing principles and theories that were not easy to understand and share memorable examples to simplify the grasp of concepts.”

“During this time of pandemic that we live in, the Professor was able to adapt and teach the best possible way. By providing the best papers in the subject, students are able to deepen their knowledge and understand everything he teaches. It is always available to clarify the existing doubts and to help his students in whatever they need.”