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Book Review – Competition Ch. 8
Competition is something that most all of us grow up with from early childhood.
Academics, sports, and behavior can all be linked to competition; the better you are the more
praise you’ll receive. Competition can have both positive and negative outcomes. Good
competition would be rewards for honest work, negative outcomes could stem from the feel of
need to cheat or sin to receive the same reward. Competition is fundamentally good and provides
many opportunities for fortifying God, but also many temptations to sin (Grudem, 2003).
A competitive system is one which we test our abilities and find if we can do something
better than others, and so be paid for it. This system works well (Grudem, 2003). I fully agree
with this statement from Grudem. When fair competition exists, we as humans strive to perform
better than others. This works well with our current business world. If our products and/or
services are better than the competition, we should have no problem retaining and growing
business opportunities. This is also true regarding another excerpt that I agree with; People keep
getting better at making things, and as a result the prices of consumer goods keep falling over the
course of decades (Grudem, 2003). We have seen this be true in recent history, the
manufacturing process has become more efficient and thus lowering costs of goods. The same
can be said about services, especially with Covid-19 changing the way we wine and dine. We are
living in a time where we face the commodity trap. Too many of our products and services are
the same. To stand out in a sea of sameness, customer experience is the only way to to do that
(Morgan, 2021). The restaurant industry has suffered with the recent effects from the Covid-19
pandemic, these restaurants have struggled with being forced to close, the lack of extra spending
from customers, and even the lack of customers going out. These restaurants then needed to beat
their competitors in every way possible.
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Academics have been a part of our lives from childhood through adulthood. This depends
on the level of education, continuing education etc. We work harder than our peers, we get better
grades or better reviews. However, Grudem stated that the best math students and the best
English students and the best art and music students receive higher grades (Grudem, 2003). I
must strongly disagree with his statement, it seems that Grudem has just listed some major
academic subjects. These subjects tend to be the harder subjects, so it would make sense that if
these students received good grades in these harder subjects, they would also excel in easier
subjects. The competition factor still does play a factor with the comparison of subjects. The
driven students will tend to do better when competing with their peers in these harder classes.
Competitive students will engage more, study more, and overall do better than those students that
do not put in the extra time. This competition between students can yield higher grades
throughout the class.
Competition can come in different forms, Grudem has mentioned this to be either good or
evil. In a business sense, good competition can yield companies to provide faster services and
better products. This builds competition between companies to try to “one up” the competition
by having he strive and ambition to do everything better than the competition. However, on the
other hand, competition can be evil. Bad competition can yield to telling untrue things about the
competition or stealing their tools and idea’s. The temptation to do better than the competition
can lead to some people and their companies to fall into this sin. do agree with Grudem in the
discussion about good and bad competition, however, not the government establishing limits.
This is purely on the idea that we already have these limits in place. This statement makes it
seem that Grudem says there should be more government limits established in business practices.
I agree with the need of limits places on competition; however, I do think there are already laws
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in place that cover this. While the law provides relief for in a variety of circumstances, there are
some intentional torts that are more important to business owners and managers because they
have the potential to impact business relationships and operations (Melvin, 2021). Melvin also
mentions specifically the Texas Cattle Ranchers Association suing Oprah Winfrey for the false
disparagement from her talk show. This is not a direct competition infringement; however, it is a
competition of beliefs and certain agendas. These laws are in place to allow the government to
place limits business competition. Laws and regulations need to be followed, especially to gain a
competitive advantage in today’s industry. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes
according to the rules (2 Timothy 2:5, ESV Online 2001). If a business doesn’t follow the rules
and regulations, they should be penalized accordingly. Since their competitors cannot be
expected to act ethically, it would be unreasonable to expect them to do so either (Heath, 2018).
Just because all the other companies are doing it, doesn’t automatically make something right.
Competition has its place in today’s business world. Without competition I believe our
products and services wouldn’t improve, and new technology wouldn’t help our business grow
and excel. Good competition provides the ambition and stive for individuals within the business
to better the company or organization. Individuals and companies feed on the competition to
become better than their competition, and this builds the business to become better, and benefits
the consumer by improving their products and experiences. Bad competition can be sinful,
depending on the circumstances. Intense business competition among business actors and
corporations can lead to forms that harm the market itself, consumers, and the state (Simbolon ,
2019). Bad competition is greedy and will not benefit the business nor its consumers or
individuals working for that company. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices
lawlessness; sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4, ESV Online 2001).
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References
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. https://esv.literalword.com/
Grudem, W. A. (2003). Business for the glory of God: The Bible's teaching on the moral
goodness of business. Crossway Books.
Heath, J. (2018). “But Everyone Else Is Doing It”: Competition and Business Self-Regulation.
Wiley Online Library. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://onlinelibrary-wiley-
com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/doi/full/10.1111/josp.12259.
Melvin, S. P., Guerra-Pujol, F. E. (2021). The legal environment of business: A managerial
approach: Theory to practice. McGraw-Hill Education.
Morgan, B. (2021). 50 stats that prove the value of customer experience. Forbes. Retrieved
September 26, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2019/09/24/50-stats-
that-prove-the-value-of-customer-experience/?sh=177fc3c24ef2.
Simbolon, A. (2019). Prevention of Monopolistic Practices and Unfair Business Competition
Through Business Competition Supervision. Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory
Issues, 22(1), 1-7. http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?
qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fprevention-
monopolistic-practices-unfair-
business%2Fdocview%2F2238482699%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085
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