It stands with no contention that a society without virtues and values would be a muddled one, and etiquette is a systemic rectitude that helps shape society. The once eccentric Internet now epitomises regularized modern society and has paved way for new diverse business processes and operations that necessitate critical decision making. These proliferating business processes have been termed e-business or e-commerce, both of which have been used interchangeably in the literature. We consider two groups in the United States of America – business organisations and Higher Education Institutions; specifically the different higher education systems in the United States. Traditionally white institutions are of choice, as members of the Internet society in this chapter. A reconnoitring of the etiquettes of the Internet and e-business vis-à-vis decision making is presented and readers are driven through the elements of etiquettes that govern e-business and how these impact businesses as a whole. It would not be over-amplified to state that this component of e-business is important in ways that translate into institutions’ and organisations’ efficacies. The Higher Education Institutions and organisations vary in size and ownership, each institution or organisation deals with the essence of e-etiquette and the data show direct relationships between e-etiquette, decision making and the success of organisations and institutions and e-societal members.
TopIntroduction
The Internet is an epitome of a society which in this chapter, referred to as eSociety (society, Internet society and eSociety will be used interchangeably in this chapter) has paved way for diverse business processes and operations, to forge a global culture (Djoleto 2008a; Djoleto, 2008b; Okunbor & Okunbor, 2005). These thriving Internet business processes have been termed Enterprise Electronic Business (e-business) or Enterprise Electronic Commerce (e-commerce), both of which have been used interchangeably in the literature (Djoleto-Okunbor, 2008c; Schneider, 2003).
In this research, we have chosen two groups in the United States of America – (1) Business Organisations and (2) Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), specifically, Traditionally White Institutions (TWIs), as members of the Internet society. TWIs are one sect of institutions of higher education in the United States of America, originally established for the purpose of educating whites only, until the mid to late twentieth century when schools and universities began witnessing desegregation of people of every colour in schools as a result of a 1954 United States of America supreme court ruling, that segregation is unconstitutional in the USA. Diversity, in recent times, has been witnessed in educational institutions in the USA; and attests to the overall global trend in diversity (Allen, Epps, & Haniff, 1991).
Enterprise Electronic Business, has become the normalized effervescent source of the way organisations do business in an effort to achieve efficiency and efficacy, is without disputation (Djoleto-Okunbor, 2009; Henderson & Venkatraman, 1999; Aird, 2001; Goral, 2003a; Fraumeni, 2001; Kennedy, 2000; Olsen, 2000; Periasamy, Ho, Poh and Bok, 2002). As a result, organisations have made significant investments in this venture, ranging from Information Technology (IT) – the bedrock, to e-business (Djoleto, 2009). It is to be noted that academic institutions or HEIs, have also invested in various forms of IT (Djoleto-Okunbor, 2008b). While the literature is full of empiricism of how e-business implementations have aided organisations and institutions to attain almost full enhancement of their business and decision-making processes, little emphases have been made specifically on the etiquettes of Enterprise e-business/e-commerce or the Internet society and its environs, which spurs this expository; eEtiquette in the context of this chapter parallels with the definition of etiquette from the Oxford Dictionary (2003) as the formal rules of correct or polite behaviour in society or among members. eEtiquette will be used to denote Internet or e-business etiquette, however, in this chapter, both will be used mutually.