Competition
Humans usually compete for food and mates, though when these needs are met deep rivalries often arise over the pursuit of wealth, power, prestige, and fame when in a static, repetitive, or unchanging environment.
Such competitions can be games of luck (randomly drawn) or skill (judged on an entry question or submission), or possibly a combination of both.
The two academic bodies of thought on the assessment of competitiveness are the Structure Conduct Performance Paradigm and the more contemporary New Empirical Industrial Organisation model.
The term was first used in the title of a book by Stephen Potter, published in 1952[13] as a follow-up to The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship (or the Art of Winning Games without Actually Cheating) (1947).
Potter's unprincipled principles apply to almost any possession, experience or situation, deriving maximum undeserved rewards and discomfitting the opposition.
[citation needed] In that context, the term refers to a satiric course in the gambits required for the systematic and conscious practice of "creative intimidation", making one's associates feel inferior and thereby gaining the status of being "one-up" on them.
Countries such as England and Singapore have special education programmes which cater for specialist students, prompting charges of academic elitism.
In severe cases, the pressure to perform in some countries is so high that it can result in stigmatization of intellectually deficient students, or even suicide as a consequence of failing the exams.
"[16] However, other studies such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking show that the effect of competition on students depends on each individual's level of agency.
[19] Adam Smith in his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations and later economists described competition in general as allocating productive resources to their most highly valued uses and encouraging efficiency.
For example, the intense competition for the small number of top jobs in music and movie-acting leads many aspiring musicians and actors to make substantial investments in training which are not recouped, because only a fraction become successful.
It has been argued that competition-oriented objectives are counterproductive to raising revenues and profitability because they limit the options of strategies for firms as well as their ability to offer innovative responses to changes in the market.
In addition, companies compete for financing on the capital markets (equity or debt) in order to generate the necessary cash for their operations.
Investor typically consider alternative investment opportunities given their risk profile, and not only look at companies just competing on product (direct competitors).
[24] Their findings appear to support that argument, as competition correlated strongly with the reverse auction success, as well as with the number of bidders.
Another component of these activities is the discovery process, with instances of higher government regulations typically leading to less competitive businesses being launched.
He claims this drives financialisation (the approximate doubling of proportion of economic resources dedicated to finance and to 'rule making and administering' professions such as law, accountancy and auditing.
as good medicine to provide better public services, traditionally funded by tax-payers and administered by democratically accountable[clarification needed] governments.
Game theory is a major method used in mathematical economics and business for modeling competing behaviors of interacting agents.
Margaret Heffernan's study, A Bigger Prize,[45] examines the perils and disadvantages of competition in (for example) biology, families, sport, education, commerce and the Soviet Union.
[46] Karl Marx insisted that "the capitalist system fosters competition and egoism in all its members and thoroughly undermines all genuine forms of community".
During this time, a boy develops a deep fear that the father (the son's prime rival) will punish him for these feelings of desire for the mother, by castrating him.
This constellation of feelings is known as Oedipus Complex (after the Greek Mythology figure who accidentally killed his father and married his mother).
[49] In the society desired by Gandhi, each individual will cooperate and serve for the welfare of others and people will share each other's joys, sorrows and achievements as a norm of a social life.
For him, in a non-violent society, competition does not have a place and this should become realized with more people making the personal choice to have fewer tendencies toward egoism and selfishness.
For example, the United States competed against the Soviet Union in the Cold War for world power, and the two also struggled over the different types of government (in these cases representative democracy and communism).
Thus, sports provide artificial (not natural) competition; for example, competing for control of a ball, or defending territory on a playing field is not an innate biological factor in humans.
Athletes in sports such as gymnastics and competitive diving compete against each other in order to come closest to a conceptual ideal of a perfect performance, which incorporates measurable criteria and standards which are translated into numerical ratings and scores by appointed judges.
"[50] Research data hints that exporting firms have a higher survival rate and achieve greater employment growth compared with non-exporters.
This concept originated in Karen Horney's theories on neurosis; specifically, the highly aggressive personality type which is characterized as "moving against people".
