Concept of Competition - Essay Example

Competition Competition is important for productive efficiency, it is very well in practice, but it is not so clear how it works in theory. The most important view regarding competition is that competitive pressure makes organization internally more efficient by sharpening incentives to avoid sloth and slack. Another one is that competition causes organization to be efficient and to prosper due to the contributing role of the factors related to efficiency. This selection process is good for aggregate efficiency. Lastly, competition innovate the major source of gains in productive efficiency (Vickers 1). For further meaning of competition, different perspectives can be given attention such as that of the work of social scientists, humanists, and philosophers. Such works do not merely report any meaning in ordinary discourse. Most of them theorize, explain, explore and penetrate below the surface to uncover the features of competition. Among species and every community competition occurs where resources are in limited supply. Competition is defined as the active demand by two or more organisms for a common source as discussed by Wilson. The using up of other resources to the detriment of other organisms, whether it is not aggressive in behavioral interaction is also another perspective on competition. Two modes of competition are distinguished by Wilson namely scramble and contests. Scramble competition can be defined as exploitative. The winner will be the one who uses the resources first without specific behavioral responses to other competitors. According to Wilson, competition theory is a relatively advanced field in ecological research. A competitive technique is the aggression among members of the same species with a set of behaviors. In addition, competition is a term pertaining to human affairs; and it is a warning of dangers involved in extending our use of the term (Newman 5). Economic competitions also play the role, as a neutral buyer or consumer. According to Tibor Schitovsky a person or an organization has competition if the party wants to trade with has alternative opportunities to exchange. Competitors are people or organizations that offer alternatives and similar opportunities to the opposing party or parties. When there is competition there is an aim to pursue one’s own interest. Having competitive behavior can be as altruistic as any other kind, but a rational competitor never act on the assumption of what others are doing. Most competitors think of their own goals and are primarily motivated to develop, demonstrate and enjoy competence on their own visions. Competitions are used to overcome feelings of being separated, abandoned and unloved. It permits demonstration of each individual’s significance which gratifies each desire, assertiveness and approval and also they perform in public, assert themselves in the presence of others at the very least of their competitor (Newman 11). Competitors always aim to win for them winning is the object of the game. They want to impress their competitors, to be admired for their success. Most competition is complex in its way especially in pursuing its goal e.g. money, job, a woman’s hand in marriage. In addition, competitive impulse seeks a good fight. Competing is the act against another human being. Competition itself often takes elusive forms example is a world class athlete producing exact performance measures to compete with the other competitors (p.11). Competition and competence are both derived from the same root. It is a desire to develop, to strive and to achieve even with the risk of defeat of failure in one direction and to strive toward a goal. A social scientist postulates that in competition the rules that can hinder a party to achieve and the rewards that can be attained can be considered equal. It usually takes the form of legitimized conflict regulated by rules. But not all competition is a pure contest in which the other competitors are prohibited to achieve their aims. Those who are legitimized and obliged to follow the rules is better rather than rules of prudence, strategy or habit. Competitions always exhibit the word fair or unfair but not all is game-like (p.19). According to Allan Filley competition will only imply disruption and disagreement. In such a process only one winner will emerge and the rest of the participants can be considered as losers and share the challenges of being at the losing end. The winning person or party in a competition can be considered as the sole achiever of the set goals, thus, visions had been realized for the said group. According to Cratty though, whether one wins or loses, success is the only goal in the competitive process (p.21). Competition is a structure or rule of the game while competitiveness is a particular state of the game. For example in a predominant-party system they follow a rule of competition to testify to low competitiveness or even to no near competitiveness. Competition becomes competitive when two or more parties obtain close returns and win. It is an equal to and can be define as potential competitiveness (Sartori 194). Competition is a type of phenomenon which can also affect the economy. It is to promote free and fair competition, to stimulate creative initiative of entrepreneurs, and to encourage business activities of enterprise. Competition is always accompanied by the factors of having freedom and being fair. The purpose of competition is to allow all the firms to sell similar goods and services to the consumers or get similar products from the suppliers. Many sectors through competition become centrally guided in terms of investments and in the proliferation of explicit exemptions and implicit guidance (Witt 191). Competition is a stationary fixed-point problem defined by a perfectly informed outside observer. According to Hayekian discovery procedure, a competitive market process makes dispersed fragments of economically relevant knowledge accessible (Fikentscher 139). Competition is intense when it comes to matters regarding business. It will always be present, especially when a same type of product or service is being offered. This type of competition affects the decisions of both the consumer and the supplier. Two factors are being considered when it comes to determining economic competition. The first thing is the number of firms competing and the second is the amount of similarities between the competing products. In the point of view of economists, there are four types of competitions that were devised due to the fact that competition is the most prevalent issue in their field. These are pure competition, monopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition (Cook 137). Competition is viewed as a dynamic process involving rivalry among parties attempting to gain a competitive edge. It serves as a form of non–authoritarian social control. Competition can commonly be observed in the process of job-seeking, sports or business due to the clashing of different participants. In an ideal form of competition it can be considered that there is perfect competition when all the participants are of similar characteristics thus none of them has an advantage over the other (Cook 137). Competition is widely accepted when it comes to the field of economics. Although this is the case, there are opposing views regarding the role and effect of competition. It helps primarily on the understanding of why the economic world changes in the way it does and identify the sources of change. It is the successions of events in a dynamic process which can be considered important in the understanding of competition. According to Morgenstern competition is a word that implies an economist to loose in touch with reality (p.7). An example of competition involved a two player trying to win a chess match. It is an action of endeavoring to gain what another endeavors to gain at the same time. The word competition is derived from the verb compete which means to strive with other people or group (Newman 3). Striving for a goal with inevitable reference to another, attainment and achievement of a goal can be considered as competition. Competing and striving are always used interchangeably. It is ordinarily understood as an activity in which there is a certain kind of obstacle to overcome, with the common factor of having a challenge from another person or group trying to overcome the same obstacle. Competition is the concept of having a rivalry with another striver (p.3). Competition is the action of gaining what others are gaining. It is the process of striving of two or more similar objects or participants in a contest, a match or a trial. Competition is not a game for all; it is something you have to overcome by striving with another (p.4). In this paper, the concept of competition had been realized through the research of a multitude of definitions from different field of expertise. When it comes to competition everything can be considered to be affected. Whether it is a play, a business or a social interaction such as an animal trying to devour a prey of a woman choosing between similar products on sale in the marketplace, competition can clearly be observed. In almost every activity in the society, competition can be observed. The concept of competition, although considered by others to have negative effect, can be viewed as an inevitable process in any social interaction. Competing cannot be judged as a bad action since there are rules that can be followed to optimize and to use the positive aspects of competition in any given activity to be able to achieve goals or overcome challenges. Works cited: Cook, Paul. Leading Issues in Competition, Regulation, and Development. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004. Print. Fikentscher,Wolfgang. Freiheit als Aufgabe. Mohr Siebeck, 1997. Print. Jacobs, Scott H. Regulatory Reform in Japan. OECD Publishing, 1999. Print. Newman, Jay. Competition in Religion Life. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1989. Print. Sartori, Giovanni. Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. ECPR Press, 2005. Print. Vickers, John. “Concepts of Competition.” Oxford Economic Papers 40 (1995): 1-23. Print. Witt, Ulrich. Explaining Process and Change: Approaches to Evolutionary Economics. University of Michigan Press, 1992. Print. Read More