competition

Competition

Intra- or intermarket rivalry between or among businesses trying to obtain a larger piece of the same market share.

Copyright © 2012, Campbell R. Harvey. All Rights Reserved.

Competition

The attempt by two or more companies or other organizations to secure the business of a customer. Competition occurs when different companies offer better quality products and/or lower prices in order to encourage economic actors to become and remain customers. For example, two grocery stores may advertise that they offer better quality meat or lower prices for peanut butter so shoppers patronize one grocery store and not the other. Nearly all economists believe that competition is necessary for innovation and growth, though few agree on how best to foster competition.

Farlex Financial Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All Rights Reserved

competition

the process of active rivalry between the sellers of a particular product as they seek to win and retain buyer demand for their offerings. Competition can take a number of forms including price cutting, ADVERTISING and SALES PROMOTION, quality variations, packaging and design, and market segmentation (see MARKETING MIX). The nature and intensity of competitive relationships in a market, in turn, depends on various factors such as product and buyer characteristics, the extent of market concentration, and cost and demand considerations (see MARKET STRUCTURE, MARKET CONDUCT). For example, where products are standardized, competition is usually focused on price, whereas in markets where buyers demand a wide range of product variety and quality mixes, PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION competition tends to be emphasized. In markets characterized by high levels of seller concentration, suppliers tend wherever possible to substitute product differentiation competition for price competition because of the mutually ruinous consequences of price wars. Moreover, in some instances, mutual interest considerations may well lead suppliers to control competition so as to promote orderly and profitable trading conditions by, for example, establishing price fixing CARTELS. Business strategy and marketing analysts are especially concerned with identifying and exploiting product and buyer characteristics as a means of establishing COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES over rival suppliers. From a wider public interest angle, the nature and strength of competition has an important effect on MARKET PERFORMANCE and hence is of particular relevance to the application of COMPETITION POLICIES.

Collins Dictionary of Business, 3rd ed. © 2002, 2005 C Pass, B Lowes, A Pendleton, L Chadwick, D O’Reilly and M Afferson

competition

1. 1a form of MARKET STRUCTURE in which the number of firms supplying the market is used to indicate the type of market it is, e.g. PERFECT COMPETITION (many small competitors), OLIGOPOLY (a few large competitors).
2. a process whereby firms strive against each other to secure customers for their products, i.e. the active rivalry of firms for customers, using price variations, PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION strategies, etc. From a wider public interest angle, the nature and strength of competition has an important effect on MARKET PERFORMANCE and hence is of particular relevance to the application of COMPETITION POLICY. See COMPETITION METHODS, MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION, MONOPOLY.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005