The Main Forms Of Unfair Competition In The Modern World

Abstract

In recent years, ways to ensure accelerated and sustainable economic development through reindustrialization have been particularly important, but Russia's strategic objectives of socio-economic and breakthrough technological development have not been properly implemented. Comparison and generalization of all known methods of unfair competition at the international and national levels, assessment of harmfulness, the proposal and methodological support of the systematic legislatively structured tooling for preventing and counteracting the cases of unfair competition will help to make a shift from a non-systemic on-the-spot tackling to the total legal healing in all economic institutions, civil society and the state control system of Russia. The results of the study will serve as the basis for continuing research in the field of long-term forecasting methodology of the socio-economic development of the regions and, in our view, will enrich the educational process in training programs for professional specialists, young scientists and in the training and retraining of managerial personnel.

Keywords: Factor analysisstrategic planningsocio-economic developmenttechnological breakthrough growthunfair competition

Introduction

The development of Russia in recent history, in accordance with strategic guidelines in the last 30 years, has come under significant resistance both from external and internal factors. Unfortunately, the objectives of economic and social development, set during the transition period, as well as those identified in strategic and program documents in 2008 (ConsultantPlus, 2020), later in May 2012 (President of RF, 2012) and May 2018 (President of RF, 2018), are not being properly implemented.

The progressive unilateral termination of all key strategic international treaties and agreements with our country provokes an aggravation of the global military threat. The introduction of international economic sanctions against Russia, the reciprocal implementation of the embargo and customs counteraction determine the escalation of the so-called “hybrid war”.

Modern external factors determine unprecedented discrimination in the world history of Russia and the Russian people (the Russian nation), which, in essence, is the process of legalization of unlawful instruments of unfair international competition (Burov et al., 2014).

Problem Statement

Along with the strained international external economic situation, the atmosphere inside the country and its regions is no less complicated and, according to many experts, is further aggravated, both in the form of corruption (Avdeev & Avdeeva, 2016), the underground economy, and in the form of political and administrative pressure.

In this regard, according to our reckoning, it is necessary to formulate a methodological tools of comprehensively taking into account external and internal factors of unfair competition in terms of reliable long-term forecasting of scenarios of socio-economic processes and strategic planning of relevant measures in order to systemically counter negative trends, ensure sustainable growth and create conditions for breakthrough technological development of Russia in the economy and social sphere (Bell, 2004; Khralenko, 1980).

Research Questions

The expanded definition of the unfair competition concept, taking into account the opinions of modern researchers, equates this phenomenon with the tool of the underground economy, which includes a set of unlawful and overtly criminal actions, including: planned violation of laws, price dumping in order to remake the market, criminal collusion, creation of secret syndicates and cartels, slander and misinformation for the purpose of discrediting and undermining the business reputation and infliction the loss, corrupt tax cuts, illegal takeover of property, falsification of goods and service products, counterfeiting, smuggling, document forgery, technological (industrial) and information espionage, disclosure and fraudulent use of trade secrets, corrupt use of “administrative resources”, as well as illegal production and sale of drugs and weapons, unlawful labor of illegal migrants, slave trade, blackmail, intimidation and murder of competitors.

However, we believe that, at the state and international level, unfair competition as a term is appropriate to be interpreted more broadly. It is a tool of the underground economy in the form of illegal activities and/or illegal inactivity aimed at obtaining unfair international strategic advantages, financial super profits, local and global commercial preferences, false business reputation and social status supremacy, by creating and exploiting different levels of domestic and external factors for competitors and competitively undermined state factors – from implementation of: illegal price manipulation, commodity and service falsification, documentary forgery, industrial espionage, commercial collusion and bribery, business defamation, systemic misinformation, criminalization and illegal takeover, technological sabotage, corruption of the authorities, and to the conducting of: virtual information campaigns, historical and educational inversions, legal annihilation, political provocations, physical and chemical-biological deterioration of the ecosystem and food, cybernetic totalization, criminal repressive blackmail, and even military punitive actions against humanistic principles, defensive ability and competitiveness, economic stability, social security, well-being and the free public consciousness of the nation (Fedotov et al., 2017; Samarukha, 2015).

Purpose of the Study

To generally elaborate on the contents of the designated specific phenomena when expanding elements of internal and external factors of international unfair competition, in our opinion, it is advisable to use the concept of "diagnosis", as well as the concept of "prescription" for reflecting the most effective tools to prevent (Veduta, 1999), protect and counter the possible harm and damage to the economy, including industry, and the social sphere of Russia and its regions.

In order to methodically apply the category of internal and external factors of international and domestic unfair competition, it is necessary to determine the risk assessment in the form of the grade level of harm – from 1 point, with a small level of possible harm, up to 10 points, with a critical level of possible fatal damage to statehood and public safety.

Research Methods

From the point of view of analysis, accounting, prevention of, acting against and protection from external and internal domestic factors, it is possible to designate perhaps the most acute and harmful phenomena presented in Tables 01 and 02 as the elements of unfair competition in order to effectively systemically counteract it (Vallerstayn, 1998).

The gradation of the contents of elements of internal and external unfair competition factors developed in the tables contains the generally accepted acronyms (RF – the Russian Federation; MIA – Ministry of the Internal Affairs; MES – Ministry of Emergency Situations; FSS – Federal Security Service; CC – Criminal Code; ERP – early release on parole; FTS – Federal Tax Service; FPS – Federal Penal Service; CBR – The Central Bank of Russia, STP – Scientific and Technological Progress, etc.) and the well-known abbreviations (QMS – quality management system; CSR – a corporate social responsibility; p. a. – private actor; MM – mass media; RPF – Pension fund of Russia; MFs – mutual funds; L. Courts – local magistrates', criminal, civil, administrative, arbitration, military courts: district, city, republican, regional, krai, federal; S.Court – Supreme Court of the Russian Federation; C.Court – Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation; etc.) used to ensure the brevity of the text.

Findings

In relation to legal entities – production, marketing and infrastructure companies, as well as individual entrepreneurs, – the hardest damage is caused by unfair competitors and organized criminal groups (Table 01 ): documentary forgery and commercial conspiracy (3), the use of “administrative resources”, that is, the initiation of excessive supervisory and force impact – commercial bribe (4), industrial espionage (5), illegal takeover (10), technological subversive actions (11).

In relation to the state system, significant harm is caused by (Table 02 ): virtual information campaigns and systemic misinformation (6), historical and educational inversions (13), legal annihilation (14), political provocations (15), political corruption of authorities (16), military punitive actions (18). In relation to the citizens of Russia and its regions, the most harmful are: illegal price manipulations (1), commodity and service forgery (2), criminalization (7), criminal repressive blackmail (8) cybernetic totalization (12), physical and chemical-biological deterioration of food, medicine (9) and ecosystem (17).

The developed tools, taking into account the discussion of ranking and the estimated assessments of the level of possible harm, is applicable in predicting long-term socio-economic development in terms of taking into account threats and possibilities for overcoming them, as well as for the purposes of strategic planning and financial and budgetary design of specific events, their regularity and intensity, to increase the effectiveness of the results achieved.

Conclusion

In our opinion, the socio-economic development of Russia and its regions, the prosperity and well-being of citizens, the state of natural habitats on land and water directly and indirectly depend on the success of confronting internal and external risks and unfair competition factors.

A detailed interdisciplinary comprehensive study of the problems of protection and counteraction against internal and external unfair competition can open new horizons for economic scientific ideas and practice of managing the national economy, taking into account the cyberization of the methodology of the analytical and forecasting process and the methodological adaptation of the process of updating strategic measures, relative to industry and regional specifics, on the principles of sustainable balanced social, ecological, economic development and innovative technological breakthrough growth of Russia and its regions on the world stage.

The results of the study will serve as the basis for continuing research in the field of long-term forecasting methodology of the socio-economic development of the regions and, in our view, will enrich the educational process in training programs for professional specialists, young scientists and in the training and retraining of managerial personnel.

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