THE EVOLUTION OF THEORETICAL VIEWS ON THE MARKET COMPETITION

Abstract

Research on the problems of the emergence and development of competition in the market is of a permanent nature, as it is intrinsic to any market economy. But these problems are particularly relevant for the Bulgarian economy, where there are sectors of the economy in which some forms of unfair competition are an integral part of the fierce competitive struggle. The timeliness of the topic is exacerbated by the need to incorporate fictitious strategies to combat unfair competition into the theory and practice of strategic management of firms in the country. Research shows that this type of company strategy is still out of the reach of strategic management. Usually research of economists on the competition are aimed primarily to: characterization and assessment of changes in the nature of the competitive struggle, to the types of competitive structures to develop competitive strategies and achieve market success. In order for these studies to be effective, it is important to trace the genesis and evolution of views on the role of competition. This will highlight its forms of manifestation and, what is very important, the results of its manifestation and its impact on individual market participants. On this basis, the problems associated with developing and implementing the business strategies that companies will apply to gain the most benefit from their participation in market competition will be highlighted. The objectives of this study are: to trace the genesis of economists' views regarding the phenomenon „market competition“; to make a critical assessment of the positive and respectively the negative characteristics of the role of the market competition; to outline a clear vision of competition at the beginning of the 21st century in the context of the ongoing global financial crisis in the world.