Competition as an economic good
The paper analyses competition as an economic good. On the basis of the comparative analysis of different approaches to competition's representations, the process representation is substantiated as the most relevant. Competition is thought of as process composed of firms' competitive actions intended to redistribute consumers' purchases in favour of each of the firms' goods producing. Successful competitive action is conducted as a rule in the framework of the firm's entrepreneurial orientation, and this action as usual is a creative one. It is shown that competition is a private good with massive externalities, i.e. a merit good. Competition's positive influence on economic development is an externality of the competitive actions producing by private market actors. In this regard, it is proposed to operationalize the notion of competition threat not as a list of unfair methods of competition but as revealed restraints of opportunities to respond in kind actions of competitors. Empirically it is possible to reveal these restrictions through firms' appeals in exercise of supervisory power verifying by antitrust authorities.