Competition by mutual adjustment

This chapter looks at competition, asking how it comes about and how it develops, with a focus on mutual adjustment. Mutual adjustment covers the social process due to decisions that actors make for themselves and not for others. Though all actual competition involves mutual adjustment, the focus here is on how a state of competition arises as a consequence of actors who mutually adjust to one another. Competition is seen as an unintended consequence created by actors who may have different desires and intentions and who are observing, adjusting, mimicking, and relating in different ways to what others are doing. The chapter analyses the relationship between mutual adjustment and organized competition and offers empirical examples of the state of competition due to mutual adjustment.