Preparatory competition

Preparatory competition is the endeavor to create opportunities for advantageous business conditions. The preparatory competition therefore precedes the immediate market events.

Action parameters

Action parameters of the preparatory competition are prices, quality (of products or services ) and delivery conditions. The preparatory competition strives to vary these action parameters in such a way that actions and reactions can already generate competitive effects. His options for action are investments and organizational measures for capacity expansion , for rationalization and for research and development .

Research competition

The research competition is based on operational research and development . It aims at price changes and the introduction of new or modified products and thus proves to be an extremely important form of preparatory competition. Basic research is the starting point for research and development . Building on this, the stage of purposeful and targeted research follows . The final stage of research and development is the technical development of certain products (or processes) and the preparation for the production of these products (or the use of the processes).

The preparatory competition in the form of an increased research competition has become increasingly important in the last few decades due to the growing number of end products, then due to a decreasing number of suppliers, but also due to the increasing homogeneity of the goods on offer. As a result of the relative indifference in prices caused by this, the importance of pure market competition is reduced to the same extent. In the course of the thus increasing preparatory competition, research and development become forms of the actual competition.

Risks

Research and development are one-time processes that cannot be repeated at will. As such, they are characterized by considerable imponderables not only with regard to the respective hoped-for results, but also with regard to the cost expenditure. This can arouse aversion to research and development projects in companies, thereby impairing competitive behavior, which in extreme cases can render the entire competitive process inoperable.

Targeted patent protection can ensure that the research and development results are secured and thus a certain risk reduction while at the same time creating incentives for competition initiatives .

Individual evidence

^ H. Westphal: Price regulations and market mechanism in the European Economic Community . In: H. Jürgensen (ed.): Economic policy studies from the Institute for European Economic Policy at the University of Hamburg. Göttingen 1969, p. 27.
^ Dietrich Scheffler: The German patent system and medium-sized industry - A theoretical and empirical study. Dissertation. Stuttgart 1986, DNB 870222627 , p. 114.
↑ W. Jabbusch: Limitation of the concentration-promoting effects of patent protection by expanding the institute of compulsory license . Cologne / Berlin / Bonn / Munich 1977, ISBN 3-452-18314-9 , p. 10.

literature

E. Kantzenbach: The functionality of the competition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1966, DNB 457135859 .
W. Bernhardt: The importance of patent protection in industrial society. Heymann, Cologne / Berlin / Bonn / Munich 1974, ISBN 3-452-17889-7 .

[1] H. Westphal: Price regulations and market mechanism in the European Economic Community . In: H. Jürgensen (ed.): Economic policy studies from the Institute for European Economic Policy at the University of Hamburg. Göttingen 1969, p. 27.

[2] Dietrich Scheffler: The German patent system and medium-sized industry - A theoretical and empirical study. Dissertation. Stuttgart 1986, DNB 870222627 , p. 114.

[3] W. Jabbusch: Limitation of the concentration-promoting effects of patent protection by expanding the institute of compulsory license . Cologne / Berlin / Bonn / Munich 1977, ISBN 3-452-18314-9 , p. 10.