Competition is a way of developing commodityproduction and type of competition of economic elements for consumer preferences in order to obtain maximum profit. In translation, "competition" means "colliding", and, being in modern society a regulator of volumes and rates of production, encourages the manufacturer to introduce scientific and technological achievements and increase labor productivity.
The development of competition and evaluationthe competitiveness of the enterprise became possible only in the conditions of the capitalist mode of farming. Capitalist relations, under which all restrictions on the direction and path of movement of labor, goods, capital, relations in the national market and the emergence of the world market were lifted only by the emergence of competition.
The optimal intensity of competition and the assessment of the competitiveness of goods on the market assumes the following as the goal of the policy in this area:
- rapid introduction of technical progress in the production of goods and services, the so-called innovation policy under the pressure of competition;
- flexible adaptation and re-profiling of enterprises under the influence of consumer inclinations.
Assessing the competitiveness of a product or service, andscale intensity of competition is determined by the rate of loss of benefits in profits, that is, how quickly innovative methods of production are used by competitors. And first of all, this indicator depends on the speed and speed of competing companies and their response to the leap of quality and technology of the enterprise going in the forefront, as well as to the dynamism of demand.
The basic principle of competition is that mostfavorable conditions for the development of healthy competition appear if competition is represented by a "broad" oligopoly. "Narrow" oligopoly, coupled with a strong individualization of goods or services, significantly reduces the intensity of competition.
In any system of market economy, there isthe danger of avoiding competitors from compulsory risks and norms closely related to the condition of free competition, and then an accurate assessment of the company's competitiveness can not be carried out. In order to avoid dishonest methods of competition (collusion on prices, imitation of trademarks, etc.), the state issues regulatory rules of competition regulations. These rules and regulations guarantee:
- product quality;
- the very existence of competition;
- the position of the price and quality of goods or services in the focus of competition;
- the proportionality of the service price to other contract terms;
- the presence of trademarks, which are protected by legal norms and confirm the quality of products;
- restriction on the time of protection by patent (20 years).
In order to be evaluatedcompetitiveness of an enterprise or a company, it is necessary that in the course of the competition honest methods of competition are used, except for which, as is known, there are less legitimate, called unscrupulous.
The methods of unfair competition includeindustrial espionage (it's economic); bribery and blackmail; counterfeiting of competitors' products; fraud with reporting; consumer deception; concealment of defects in goods; etc. In addition, to unscrupulous methods of competition, in which a true assessment of competitiveness can not be carried out, is scientific and technical espionage. After all, as you know, the source of profit can be only that development that finds its embodiment in practice, that is, if the scientific and technical invention or idea is embodied in production in a particular product or new technology.
