COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION
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COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION
INTRODUCTION - Understanding Problems and Setting Issues
In the current capitalist economy, while the disparity is widening, the bubble and the financial crisis are repeated, the fiscal collapse is caused to counter the crisis, further it is in a closed situation that economic expansion brings about environmental destruction, the search for the cause and the solution is carried out. While there are indications by neoliberalists that un-establishment of global and more complete free market and lack of further competition is the cause and that the above problem can be solved by promoting economic growth through expanding competition, on the contrary, it is said that the cause is the neo-liberal competitive economy, and that the guiding principle of the next generation should be collaboration aiming for harmonious coexistence with nature in order to survive human beings, and it has been pointed out that it appears already the bud of various activities by NPO etc. It has been made many task assignments in the form of whether as neoliberalists say should introduce further 'competition' by deregulation in order to revitalize capitalism, or as environmentalists and various NPOs say should switch to activities based on "collaboration" or "symbiosis" in order to make a breakdown with global financial capitalism.
"Competition" is strongly and globally proposed and deployed by dominant existing forces, whereas "collaboration" has been developed only in small size and slenderly form in each region, but it is deployed with global having universality showing the future potential. In the present situation, on one side only "competition", on the other side only "collaboration" is emphasized in mutually incompatible manner, but when calmly seeing reality the two can not be separated from each other, so now it will be issue to reexamine "Competition" and "Collaboration" once again.
2. CURRENT HISTORICAL PERCEPTION
First of all, historically consider current situation from the viewpoint of competition ant its regulation and collaboration. Under the mercantilist regime, the profit of vested owners is protected and the interests of the general public are damaged under various regulations, so that the emerging industrial capitalist (bourgeoisie) demand to abolish the regulation to form a free market in order to achieve full flowering of industrial capitalism. Though, mercantilism broke down the feudal system and its regulations and was patented by the king in response to the demands of merchants in order to develop the industry, so it was never reactionary from the origin. Theoretical players of industrial capital think that it is unintentionally allocated optimally resources and using it efficiently by competitive behavior in the free market (= field of competition) and it is possible to increase the profit of society. However, it was recognized that there was a danger of social confusion if there was a rapid deregulation.
After that, along with the development of capitalism, the free market economy reached an impasse due to excessive competition in the free market and evils of monopoly and the occurrence of repeated depression, and at last a world war has occurred due to competition for market acquisition for capital survival. Therefore, after World War II, economic growth is aimed at by expanding demand by building a social welfare system as well as increasing labor share, forming an intermediate stratum, and by implementing policies that creating an effective demand by public investment during recession, the Ford Keynes system, which achieves stable economic development under capitalism, was established, where economic policies and various regulations that control the macro economy were introduced.
However, due to changes in the economic structure in response to the subsequent informatization and the progress of globalization, the Ford Keynes system was not able to keep going and regulation relaxation came to be called out. Because, it was resulted in a state of blocking such as stagflation occurred, due to the progress of information technology that has led to a decline in the profit rate of the manufacturing industry and shortening of the expectancy in value of the goods, the risk of lack of energy resources such as petroleum resources and food resources, the high cost due to measures against environmental deterioration, and dematerialization of the international key currency by stopping the conversion of the dollar into gold. In these changes of situation, it has been becoming wasteful and unreasonable regulations that would hinder the development of the economy in order to protect beneficiaries of vested interests even if such restrictions were appropriate at the time of introduction of the regulations,because social benefits are damaged by such excessive regulatory structure. Then, it is increasing arguments such as easing regulation and introducing free competition to aim at efficiency, and becoming to uncritically accept the thought patterns such as "regulations" is evil, "competition" is good. And the opinion that economic growth is possible with drawing out creativity and ingenuity of the people by market-oriented structural reforms so as from "regulation" by "government" to "competition" by "private sector" with the nucleus of elimination or mitigation of regulations becomes "mainstream" in the business world. However, "the realization of optimum allocation of resources by market-oriented structural reform" means only that the supply-demand adjustment mechanism by the price system works in the commodity market as a ideal type, and it is merely that the partial truth is unjustly universalized by extension interpretation. For that reason, in the free market, the logic of global financial capital seeking only the acquisition of maximum profit brings about the harm of increasing disparity, repeating the bubble and financial crisis, progressing of the financial and fiscal crisis and the seriousness of the global financial crisis.
On the other hand, under the market economy, the viewpoint of "collaboration" in directly was practically not appeared. However, since social division of labor is originally social collaboration itself, the outcome of division of labor is based on the collaboration, and collaborative viewpoints are indispensable in social activities including economic activities. But, under the current market economy, the division of labor as social collaboration works only in a form dependent on the competition system. Admission of collaboration as itself in economic theory is to extent such as handling collaboration by industry associations and others as a competitive impediment factor and collaboration in production activities within the company.
Also, as a collaborative organization in the real economy, cooperatives (agricultural cooperatives, credit cooperatives, consumer's cooperatives, small and medium enterprises cooperatives, etc.) were formed as early as the stock company, but it was established as a mutual aid organization of people based on idea of fantasy socialism that is such as construction of cooperative organizations based on humanitarianism based on love of humanity. Since it was incorporated into a wide range of market economies and could not overcome market competition and as a minority driven to a corner of the market economy. Also, while in recent years NPO and others have expanded their active places in many fields including welfare, the environment, local industry, retail finance, etc. and its future is expected to develop, the logic of concrete development that goes to be the mainstream of the economy beyond the market economy has not yet been seen.
3. PRINCIPLE ANALYSIS OF COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION
Now, we will again analyze the competition and collaboration and the relationship between the two in principle. Competition has rules as its premise. There is no competition in the absence of rules, competition without rules is confusion rather than competition. Even war is a competition by arms between nations, and there are reasonable rules although it is conveniently altered conveniently. Also, the revolution is a turmoil in the process of forming a new rule. In order to ensure fair competition in this competition, it is necessary to satisfy the following rules.
① The field of competition is open to the outside both by information and by people (openness)
② Independent persons voluntarily participate in the field (autonomy)
③ Set the contents of competition (including conditions of competition) fairly and clearly to eliminate interference and influence of other external factors, thereby aim at fulfillment of the competition (fulfillment)
④ Compete fairly under the principle of faithful faithfulness (empathy)
⑤ Accept the results of competition in cooperation and sincerely (cooperativeness)
In addition, ③ means that it is indispensable to establish competition conditions in order to establish competition and to enhance contents of competition and to ensure fair competition. All other items are obvious matters, so there is no need to explain in detail.
There are also rules for collaboration. In blind collaboration, especially when close collaboration is strongly advocated in closed space / society, there is a possibility that it may be synonymous with tyranny. In order to ensure fairness in this collaboration, it is necessary to satisfy the following rules.
① The field of collaboration is open to the outside both by information and people (openness)
② Independent persons voluntarily participate and compose the field (autonomy)
③ People have a clear intention to the purpose of collaboration and insist on places where make use of their abilities to achieve the purpose, thereby aim at fulfillment of collaboration (fulfillment)
④ Obtain mutual understanding to achieve purpose by fostering mutual communication and fighting opinions fairly (empathy)
⑤ Act in collaboration based on agreement (cooperativeness)
In addition, ③ means that in order to ensure fair collaboration it is necessary to enhance the collaborative contents by preventing become to a mere name by formal collaboration and by making people to have the capacity for actively participate in achieving the purpose of collaboration. All other items are obvious matters, so there is no need to explain in detail.
In this manner, it proves that referring to the competition and collaboration those rules that satisfy their fairness are having common ideas and sense of values of openness, autonomy, fulfillment, empathy and cooperativeness that are bracketed at the end of each item. In addition, competition and collaboration exist on a common foundation and mutually complementary. For example as the most primitive form, attempt to consider a case where conduct athletic contest that is an example of competition and collaboration in individual vs. individual. In individual vs. individual athletic contest, fairness is often ensured by setting rules on object and contents of competition and competition conditions (division by weight, handicap, etc.). Because, even in simple competition, if the outcome is clear from the beginning, competition is meaningless for seeking to grow together. Also, the athletic contest is that competes under certain rules and accepts the results faithfully with each other when winning and losing decides and does not attack the losers any more. Thereby, it is collaborating together to enjoy the athletic contest.
Also, as an example of competition and collaboration in a general organization vs. organization, considering a case where teams (organizations) play a league game in the sports federation, in the team, composing members compete in the regular member selection, in the external match between the teams, the teams collaborate to compete with other teams, so that within each team collaboration and competition are complementarily linking, and the teams also collaborate as a sports federation for securing fair game, enhancing the competitiveness of each team and improving the quality of the game in order to give the lover a lot of fun by develope quality of the game, and compete with other sports federations to earn fans.
Likewise, even in typical corporate activities in which external markets are a place of competition and internal production sites are recognized as collaborative places, in order to enhance the competitiveness of companies competition is indispensable, and in order to ensure proper and fair competition among companies collaboration among companies is indispensable, so competition and collaboration are complementarily cooperating. Also, inside and outside are multiplex-nature, and competition and collaboration are complementarily cooperated in each, and in that case the dimension of recognition is changed, there is another-dimensional competition and collaboration . In this way, competition and collaboration cooperate mutually and complementarily, and "regulation (rule)" is a condition that prescribes their existence as a precondition to ensure their fairness. Therefore, it is desirable to establish a fair "regulation (rule)" that realizes mutually complementary relationships of competition and collaboration having a common basis in society, and doing so there is a possibility to realize fair and rich social development.
4. FAIRNESS OF MARKET COMPETITION UNDER CAPITALIST ECONOMY
Considering the complementary linking relationship of competition and collaboration as above, we will reconsider the market competition under the capitalist economy. In view that the free competition is fair in general, the survival of the fittest by survival competition in the nature is mentioned, and free competition and the result are often said to be nature's affair. However, in the nature there are limitations on the desire of the strong by itself concerning survival competition such as "the law of the jungle", natural selection, survival of the fittest (individual and species), and there is a prerequisite conditions that the meaning of the desire itself and its strong/weak is diverse within the various natural environments and conditions, consequently there is a variety of organisms existed with fairness guaranteed. In addition, changes in natural conditions are said to be fair because they influence inevitably and equitably on everything, although there are differences in how they are affected.
In the market economy against this, it is certain that as long as competition is properly carried out, it will be a sound incentive for economic development, more generally for the development of society in general. However, in a free market driven by universal single value standards and unlimited profits, fairness can not be realized with simple free competition rules. In the case where the regulations (rules) that make up the market are not appropriate and sufficient, there is a risk that market discipline will be impaired by the excessive competition, adverse effects of monopoly will arise, and even people's safety will be impaired. Therefore, how to regulate the fairness in market competition becomes a problem.
In the commodity market, it can be said that markets securing free competition in terms of quality and quantity of goods, cost and price, selling method, demand-raising ability, etc. are superficially fair and act socially positively. In addition, the free market is a market in which anyone can enter the market, there are no obstacles and barriers such as discrimination in the market entry, and various entry regulations are excluded as unfair trade practices. However, to regulate fraud, default, disruption of work, unfair competition is absolutely necessary regulation to secure free market, it is said to be a fair rule.
On the other hand, in such a free market, it is natural that large-scale capital with financial capability has strong competitiveness in the industrial structure with only profit as the driving force and based on mass production and mass sales. If large capital acts freely, even if small capital produces characteristic and something meaningful goods, there is a high probability of losing competition and forcing to leave the market or subjecting to large capital, if price competition can be put on. Nevertheless it can not be said that competition is free and fair, it is said that under the capitalist economy this is a result of competition and does not deviate from fair rules. However, it is certain that unfair competition will take place, at least if there is no monopoly prohibition and the regulations of unfair competition are poor. Therefor, when competition is severely restricted or not established due to excessive private monopoly or bid rigging by an oligopoly company, it is considered that market discipline is distorted and not fair even if it is a result of competition, and Antimonopoly law preventing it is often regarded as a legitimate and necessary regulation for free markets. But, criteria for judging whether competition is fair will depend on the position because it is made only from the viewpoint of competition and the degree of competition to be established. However, originally, free and fair competition means that people with various values and features compete and prosper in various forms, so that it is established under the regulations (Rule) that people's collaboration complementarily combine.
In recent years, along with the globalization of the economy, it becomes easy to produce and import goods freely and inexpensively overseas, which is actively carried out by large commercial capital, whereby small and medium enterprises and shopping malls are directly exposed to global market competition and forced to leave the market, and the situation is now being targeted to agriculture and medical care as well. And it gives precept doing devise to acquire the competitiveness to overcome the global market competition. Furthermore, from foreign capital, it is required to eliminate various protection regulations (rules) because those hamper entry into the market, and from domestic large capital, it is requested to eliminate regulation of protection of small business to ensure international competitiveness, and to eliminate regulations (rules) to protect workers to make dispatched labor generalized and to allow for subcontracting under the name of outsourcing and to liberalize employment / dismissal. This is based on the premise that it is fair in the sense that the formation of a globally homogeneous free competitive market is an unavoidable and reasonable system in every field including the labor market, and it is fair only from this viewpoint of competition, but it is unfair inherently. Because, globalization means developing more diverse cultures by competing with trying to cooperate and collaborate mutually while making full use of the value of diversity in lifestyle and culture, therefore, not from the viewpoint of only competition in the free market, it should be grasped from the viewpoint of complementarily fusing the viewpoint of collaboration, in that case it is unfair.
Furthermore, in response to sophistication of the market structure, futures markets designed to hedge risks and financial derivatives that combine the financial products are created, and the commodity market and the financial market have become a highly speculative market under the capitalist market where profit is object by speeding up and upgrading of information processing. In the commodity market, especially foods such as cereals and energy such as petroleum are targeted, and it acts to cause the commodity price to fluctuate rather than hedging the risk, whereby while the hedge fund gains huge interest, it has caused a great calamity to the people of the world, especially the people of the poorest countries. Even in financial markets such as foreign exchange, stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc., the hedge fund gains huge interests due to fluctuations in the market price and repetition of bubbles and crises, while the fear of global financial collapse and the financial collapse crisis by the countermeasures to avoid the global financial collapse are about to come. Transactions in the free market where the giant hedge funds insatiably seek a profit is formally or superficially fair from the viewpoint of competition, but practically it has become an unfair deal clearly excessing over the function to hedge the risk, and it has become nearly impossible to control its unfair competition. In order to ensure fairness of competition, it is only necessary to carry out regulations (rules) to establish a complementary relationship with collaboration, so it is thought that it is nothing else to bind with strong regulation for at least competition which motivates only pursuit of profits.
5. PROSPECT OF COOPERATION FORM
BETWEEN COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION
As described above, under the capitalist economy, only the principle of free competition which is driven by profit acts solely, and regulation is done as necessary evil to secure competition from the viewpoint of competition or from a humanitarian point of view, or it is done only unavoidably from a point of view of some industrial protection, so in the end on the whole it can not help being impossible to regulate effective regulations by being compromised by the principle of competition. As mentioned earlier, at present reality is that the capitalist economic system of such a competition principle exposes contradictions in all scenes and it is revealing a stalemate. On the other hand, under the capitalist economic system, the embryo towards the information society is shown in declining demand for goods, shortening the life of products, diversifying values, expanding the virtual world, sharing information via the Internet, etc.
The information society is a society in which the capital and profit are no longer the leading drivers, the diversified value is the driving force, and its field is the global world having diversified cultures, and in such society there is a possibility to realize a system in which fair competition and collaboration are complementarily combined based on that a field for competition and collaboration is formed in the global free market. The present writer basically have prospects that it is possible to build a free and fair society that develops steadily by constructing such a system.
Nonprofit companies are the best corporate form as an organization that conducts activities in which such competition and collaboration are complementarily combined. Because, corporate purpose and business activities are fused in the nonprofit companies, since their corporate objectives are not profits but business activities themselves, and they are aiming to achieve them. Thus, they are required organization and operation form that realizes mutually complemental combination of collaboration and competition on inside and outside of companies. To realize such organization and operation form, it is necessary not to be a private company with a competitive principle aimed at profit, but to be a corporate form that is not a public corporation of the collaborative principle intended for public interest. In other words, there is a possibility to realize the fusion of competition and collaboration by setting a category of nonprofit company, that is company of non-profit organizations (NPO), between public enterprises whose collaborative principles bring closure and inefficiency in order to conduct publicly monopolized corporate activities for the purpose of public interest and private enterprises whose competition principles aimed at profit bring nature destruction and disparity and instability of society.
This nonprofit company is a company that aims to contribute to society by fulfills the social needs as corporate purposes and achieves the purpose of the company through the survival of its own activities without the purpose of profit as its name suggests. It is a company with incentive to obtain social evaluation and honor for activities. Of course, even nonprofit company will survive without dependency on donations and assistance, so it is essential to conduct corporate activities to ensure profits necessary for stable survival by corporate activities.
It is preferable that the organization within the nonprofit company is organized as core project teams where competition and collaboration are well engaged, and those are organized a collaboration body and a multiple cooperation body thereof. Organizational staff will work together to collaborate and compete with each other to become a better player of the project so that the project will succeed within the team and aim to further differentiation and launch of new projects among them, by doing so the company will survive and develop. In addition, nonprofit company compete and collaborate with outside in response to the position of the project in the external environment such as the industry, and also conduct external competition and collaboration from a global perspective. In doing so, mutual acquisition and sharing of global information via the Internet makes it possible to conduct meaningful corporate activities in a global world with varied value.
The fields suitable for the development of nonprofit companies are the fields of education, sports, welfare and nursing care, research and development, agriculture, medical field, management and operation of public facilities and spaces, etc. Ironically it is said that these fields are growing fields that are likely to be able to overcome the current economic situation which shows the impasse of the capitalist economic system. However, these fields are inappropriate for stock companies with profit motivation, and nonprofit companies are optimal. As an example of the possibility of concrete development, for example, a worker cooperative (a union of day laborers) has been extended from services such as cleaning to nursing care services etc.(Shigeo Momose, "New Cooperative Organization Revolution" Toyo Keizai Inc., 2003), and by furthermore enterprising it can possibly be active more widely in the field of general education and sports.
Regarding how to procure business funds of nonprofit companies and how to locate their donors, at least the companies that raise funds through the issue of shares are inappropriate because those are bound by the legislation that the shareholders are owners of the company and the shareholders seeking only profit. Financial NPO (Yoshihiro Fujii, "Financial NPO", Iwanami Shoten, 2007) is optimal, but at present it is extremely fine. However, in that case the number of investments and the amount of investment of this financial NPO increase and become more universal to some extent, the banks themselves also survive and there is a possibility of converting basic stance to return to the original role of providing necessary funds for social business and devoting themselves solely to do so. In addition, with the information society progresses, selecting a nonprofit company as a venture company will result in low risk, so increase the possibility that venture capital will be invested even if it obtains only an appropriate return equivalent to bank lending or plus alpha on it.
Furthermore, in order for nonprofit companies to widely deploy in new fields to fulfill social requirements and to facilitate funding for that, it is required to establish a legal system that legally and clearly positions existing forms of nonprofit companies and their activities.
Currently, in order to conduct corporate activities, it is convenient and advantageous to do it as a stock company, so there is no choice but to make it into a stock company. Of course, there are companies that formally are stock companies, but act as nonprofit companies in philosophy and management, but since there are naturally restrictions and limitations, legislation is desirable. Regarding the specific way of legislation, proposals based on knowledge and requests from activities of currently active NPO corporations is expected.
Then, when nonprofit companies become mainstream in the future, private enterprises will decline because only the companies that produce specific goods will lose their existential significance, and the regulation will be strengthened so that appropriate competition will be done. In addition, public enterprises will become unnecessary for proper nonprofit companies to be engaged in work, the public agencies themselves will shrink, and the fiscal burden will be reduced. Thus, a free, fair and non-inefficient society could be realized.
INTRODUCTION - Understanding Problems and Setting Issues
In the current capitalist economy, while the disparity is widening, the bubble and the financial crisis are repeated, the fiscal collapse is caused to counter the crisis, further it is in a closed situation that economic expansion brings about environmental destruction, the search for the cause and the solution is carried out. While there are indications by neoliberalists that un-establishment of global and more complete free market and lack of further competition is the cause and that the above problem can be solved by promoting economic growth through expanding competition, on the contrary, it is said that the cause is the neo-liberal competitive economy, and that the guiding principle of the next generation should be collaboration aiming for harmonious coexistence with nature in order to survive human beings, and it has been pointed out that it appears already the bud of various activities by NPO etc. It has been made many task assignments in the form of whether as neoliberalists say should introduce further 'competition' by deregulation in order to revitalize capitalism, or as environmentalists and various NPOs say should switch to activities based on "collaboration" or "symbiosis" in order to make a breakdown with global financial capitalism.
"Competition" is strongly and globally proposed and deployed by dominant existing forces, whereas "collaboration" has been developed only in small size and slenderly form in each region, but it is deployed with global having universality showing the future potential. In the present situation, on one side only "competition", on the other side only "collaboration" is emphasized in mutually incompatible manner, but when calmly seeing reality the two can not be separated from each other, so now it will be issue to reexamine "Competition" and "Collaboration" once again.
2. CURRENT HISTORICAL PERCEPTION
First of all, historically consider current situation from the viewpoint of competition ant its regulation and collaboration. Under the mercantilist regime, the profit of vested owners is protected and the interests of the general public are damaged under various regulations, so that the emerging industrial capitalist (bourgeoisie) demand to abolish the regulation to form a free market in order to achieve full flowering of industrial capitalism. Though, mercantilism broke down the feudal system and its regulations and was patented by the king in response to the demands of merchants in order to develop the industry, so it was never reactionary from the origin. Theoretical players of industrial capital think that it is unintentionally allocated optimally resources and using it efficiently by competitive behavior in the free market (= field of competition) and it is possible to increase the profit of society. However, it was recognized that there was a danger of social confusion if there was a rapid deregulation.
After that, along with the development of capitalism, the free market economy reached an impasse due to excessive competition in the free market and evils of monopoly and the occurrence of repeated depression, and at last a world war has occurred due to competition for market acquisition for capital survival. Therefore, after World War II, economic growth is aimed at by expanding demand by building a social welfare system as well as increasing labor share, forming an intermediate stratum, and by implementing policies that creating an effective demand by public investment during recession, the Ford Keynes system, which achieves stable economic development under capitalism, was established, where economic policies and various regulations that control the macro economy were introduced.
However, due to changes in the economic structure in response to the subsequent informatization and the progress of globalization, the Ford Keynes system was not able to keep going and regulation relaxation came to be called out. Because, it was resulted in a state of blocking such as stagflation occurred, due to the progress of information technology that has led to a decline in the profit rate of the manufacturing industry and shortening of the expectancy in value of the goods, the risk of lack of energy resources such as petroleum resources and food resources, the high cost due to measures against environmental deterioration, and dematerialization of the international key currency by stopping the conversion of the dollar into gold. In these changes of situation, it has been becoming wasteful and unreasonable regulations that would hinder the development of the economy in order to protect beneficiaries of vested interests even if such restrictions were appropriate at the time of introduction of the regulations,because social benefits are damaged by such excessive regulatory structure. Then, it is increasing arguments such as easing regulation and introducing free competition to aim at efficiency, and becoming to uncritically accept the thought patterns such as "regulations" is evil, "competition" is good. And the opinion that economic growth is possible with drawing out creativity and ingenuity of the people by market-oriented structural reforms so as from "regulation" by "government" to "competition" by "private sector" with the nucleus of elimination or mitigation of regulations becomes "mainstream" in the business world. However, "the realization of optimum allocation of resources by market-oriented structural reform" means only that the supply-demand adjustment mechanism by the price system works in the commodity market as a ideal type, and it is merely that the partial truth is unjustly universalized by extension interpretation. For that reason, in the free market, the logic of global financial capital seeking only the acquisition of maximum profit brings about the harm of increasing disparity, repeating the bubble and financial crisis, progressing of the financial and fiscal crisis and the seriousness of the global financial crisis.
On the other hand, under the market economy, the viewpoint of "collaboration" in directly was practically not appeared. However, since social division of labor is originally social collaboration itself, the outcome of division of labor is based on the collaboration, and collaborative viewpoints are indispensable in social activities including economic activities. But, under the current market economy, the division of labor as social collaboration works only in a form dependent on the competition system. Admission of collaboration as itself in economic theory is to extent such as handling collaboration by industry associations and others as a competitive impediment factor and collaboration in production activities within the company.
Also, as a collaborative organization in the real economy, cooperatives (agricultural cooperatives, credit cooperatives, consumer's cooperatives, small and medium enterprises cooperatives, etc.) were formed as early as the stock company, but it was established as a mutual aid organization of people based on idea of fantasy socialism that is such as construction of cooperative organizations based on humanitarianism based on love of humanity. Since it was incorporated into a wide range of market economies and could not overcome market competition and as a minority driven to a corner of the market economy. Also, while in recent years NPO and others have expanded their active places in many fields including welfare, the environment, local industry, retail finance, etc. and its future is expected to develop, the logic of concrete development that goes to be the mainstream of the economy beyond the market economy has not yet been seen.
3. PRINCIPLE ANALYSIS OF COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION
Now, we will again analyze the competition and collaboration and the relationship between the two in principle. Competition has rules as its premise. There is no competition in the absence of rules, competition without rules is confusion rather than competition. Even war is a competition by arms between nations, and there are reasonable rules although it is conveniently altered conveniently. Also, the revolution is a turmoil in the process of forming a new rule. In order to ensure fair competition in this competition, it is necessary to satisfy the following rules.
① The field of competition is open to the outside both by information and by people (openness)
② Independent persons voluntarily participate in the field (autonomy)
③ Set the contents of competition (including conditions of competition) fairly and clearly to eliminate interference and influence of other external factors, thereby aim at fulfillment of the competition (fulfillment)
④ Compete fairly under the principle of faithful faithfulness (empathy)
⑤ Accept the results of competition in cooperation and sincerely (cooperativeness)
In addition, ③ means that it is indispensable to establish competition conditions in order to establish competition and to enhance contents of competition and to ensure fair competition. All other items are obvious matters, so there is no need to explain in detail.
There are also rules for collaboration. In blind collaboration, especially when close collaboration is strongly advocated in closed space / society, there is a possibility that it may be synonymous with tyranny. In order to ensure fairness in this collaboration, it is necessary to satisfy the following rules.
① The field of collaboration is open to the outside both by information and people (openness)
② Independent persons voluntarily participate and compose the field (autonomy)
③ People have a clear intention to the purpose of collaboration and insist on places where make use of their abilities to achieve the purpose, thereby aim at fulfillment of collaboration (fulfillment)
④ Obtain mutual understanding to achieve purpose by fostering mutual communication and fighting opinions fairly (empathy)
⑤ Act in collaboration based on agreement (cooperativeness)
In addition, ③ means that in order to ensure fair collaboration it is necessary to enhance the collaborative contents by preventing become to a mere name by formal collaboration and by making people to have the capacity for actively participate in achieving the purpose of collaboration. All other items are obvious matters, so there is no need to explain in detail.
In this manner, it proves that referring to the competition and collaboration those rules that satisfy their fairness are having common ideas and sense of values of openness, autonomy, fulfillment, empathy and cooperativeness that are bracketed at the end of each item. In addition, competition and collaboration exist on a common foundation and mutually complementary. For example as the most primitive form, attempt to consider a case where conduct athletic contest that is an example of competition and collaboration in individual vs. individual. In individual vs. individual athletic contest, fairness is often ensured by setting rules on object and contents of competition and competition conditions (division by weight, handicap, etc.). Because, even in simple competition, if the outcome is clear from the beginning, competition is meaningless for seeking to grow together. Also, the athletic contest is that competes under certain rules and accepts the results faithfully with each other when winning and losing decides and does not attack the losers any more. Thereby, it is collaborating together to enjoy the athletic contest.
Also, as an example of competition and collaboration in a general organization vs. organization, considering a case where teams (organizations) play a league game in the sports federation, in the team, composing members compete in the regular member selection, in the external match between the teams, the teams collaborate to compete with other teams, so that within each team collaboration and competition are complementarily linking, and the teams also collaborate as a sports federation for securing fair game, enhancing the competitiveness of each team and improving the quality of the game in order to give the lover a lot of fun by develope quality of the game, and compete with other sports federations to earn fans.
Likewise, even in typical corporate activities in which external markets are a place of competition and internal production sites are recognized as collaborative places, in order to enhance the competitiveness of companies competition is indispensable, and in order to ensure proper and fair competition among companies collaboration among companies is indispensable, so competition and collaboration are complementarily cooperating. Also, inside and outside are multiplex-nature, and competition and collaboration are complementarily cooperated in each, and in that case the dimension of recognition is changed, there is another-dimensional competition and collaboration . In this way, competition and collaboration cooperate mutually and complementarily, and "regulation (rule)" is a condition that prescribes their existence as a precondition to ensure their fairness. Therefore, it is desirable to establish a fair "regulation (rule)" that realizes mutually complementary relationships of competition and collaboration having a common basis in society, and doing so there is a possibility to realize fair and rich social development.
4. FAIRNESS OF MARKET COMPETITION UNDER CAPITALIST ECONOMY
Considering the complementary linking relationship of competition and collaboration as above, we will reconsider the market competition under the capitalist economy. In view that the free competition is fair in general, the survival of the fittest by survival competition in the nature is mentioned, and free competition and the result are often said to be nature's affair. However, in the nature there are limitations on the desire of the strong by itself concerning survival competition such as "the law of the jungle", natural selection, survival of the fittest (individual and species), and there is a prerequisite conditions that the meaning of the desire itself and its strong/weak is diverse within the various natural environments and conditions, consequently there is a variety of organisms existed with fairness guaranteed. In addition, changes in natural conditions are said to be fair because they influence inevitably and equitably on everything, although there are differences in how they are affected.
In the market economy against this, it is certain that as long as competition is properly carried out, it will be a sound incentive for economic development, more generally for the development of society in general. However, in a free market driven by universal single value standards and unlimited profits, fairness can not be realized with simple free competition rules. In the case where the regulations (rules) that make up the market are not appropriate and sufficient, there is a risk that market discipline will be impaired by the excessive competition, adverse effects of monopoly will arise, and even people's safety will be impaired. Therefore, how to regulate the fairness in market competition becomes a problem.
In the commodity market, it can be said that markets securing free competition in terms of quality and quantity of goods, cost and price, selling method, demand-raising ability, etc. are superficially fair and act socially positively. In addition, the free market is a market in which anyone can enter the market, there are no obstacles and barriers such as discrimination in the market entry, and various entry regulations are excluded as unfair trade practices. However, to regulate fraud, default, disruption of work, unfair competition is absolutely necessary regulation to secure free market, it is said to be a fair rule.
On the other hand, in such a free market, it is natural that large-scale capital with financial capability has strong competitiveness in the industrial structure with only profit as the driving force and based on mass production and mass sales. If large capital acts freely, even if small capital produces characteristic and something meaningful goods, there is a high probability of losing competition and forcing to leave the market or subjecting to large capital, if price competition can be put on. Nevertheless it can not be said that competition is free and fair, it is said that under the capitalist economy this is a result of competition and does not deviate from fair rules. However, it is certain that unfair competition will take place, at least if there is no monopoly prohibition and the regulations of unfair competition are poor. Therefor, when competition is severely restricted or not established due to excessive private monopoly or bid rigging by an oligopoly company, it is considered that market discipline is distorted and not fair even if it is a result of competition, and Antimonopoly law preventing it is often regarded as a legitimate and necessary regulation for free markets. But, criteria for judging whether competition is fair will depend on the position because it is made only from the viewpoint of competition and the degree of competition to be established. However, originally, free and fair competition means that people with various values and features compete and prosper in various forms, so that it is established under the regulations (Rule) that people's collaboration complementarily combine.
In recent years, along with the globalization of the economy, it becomes easy to produce and import goods freely and inexpensively overseas, which is actively carried out by large commercial capital, whereby small and medium enterprises and shopping malls are directly exposed to global market competition and forced to leave the market, and the situation is now being targeted to agriculture and medical care as well. And it gives precept doing devise to acquire the competitiveness to overcome the global market competition. Furthermore, from foreign capital, it is required to eliminate various protection regulations (rules) because those hamper entry into the market, and from domestic large capital, it is requested to eliminate regulation of protection of small business to ensure international competitiveness, and to eliminate regulations (rules) to protect workers to make dispatched labor generalized and to allow for subcontracting under the name of outsourcing and to liberalize employment / dismissal. This is based on the premise that it is fair in the sense that the formation of a globally homogeneous free competitive market is an unavoidable and reasonable system in every field including the labor market, and it is fair only from this viewpoint of competition, but it is unfair inherently. Because, globalization means developing more diverse cultures by competing with trying to cooperate and collaborate mutually while making full use of the value of diversity in lifestyle and culture, therefore, not from the viewpoint of only competition in the free market, it should be grasped from the viewpoint of complementarily fusing the viewpoint of collaboration, in that case it is unfair.
Furthermore, in response to sophistication of the market structure, futures markets designed to hedge risks and financial derivatives that combine the financial products are created, and the commodity market and the financial market have become a highly speculative market under the capitalist market where profit is object by speeding up and upgrading of information processing. In the commodity market, especially foods such as cereals and energy such as petroleum are targeted, and it acts to cause the commodity price to fluctuate rather than hedging the risk, whereby while the hedge fund gains huge interest, it has caused a great calamity to the people of the world, especially the people of the poorest countries. Even in financial markets such as foreign exchange, stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc., the hedge fund gains huge interests due to fluctuations in the market price and repetition of bubbles and crises, while the fear of global financial collapse and the financial collapse crisis by the countermeasures to avoid the global financial collapse are about to come. Transactions in the free market where the giant hedge funds insatiably seek a profit is formally or superficially fair from the viewpoint of competition, but practically it has become an unfair deal clearly excessing over the function to hedge the risk, and it has become nearly impossible to control its unfair competition. In order to ensure fairness of competition, it is only necessary to carry out regulations (rules) to establish a complementary relationship with collaboration, so it is thought that it is nothing else to bind with strong regulation for at least competition which motivates only pursuit of profits.
5. PROSPECT OF COOPERATION FORM
BETWEEN COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION
As described above, under the capitalist economy, only the principle of free competition which is driven by profit acts solely, and regulation is done as necessary evil to secure competition from the viewpoint of competition or from a humanitarian point of view, or it is done only unavoidably from a point of view of some industrial protection, so in the end on the whole it can not help being impossible to regulate effective regulations by being compromised by the principle of competition. As mentioned earlier, at present reality is that the capitalist economic system of such a competition principle exposes contradictions in all scenes and it is revealing a stalemate. On the other hand, under the capitalist economic system, the embryo towards the information society is shown in declining demand for goods, shortening the life of products, diversifying values, expanding the virtual world, sharing information via the Internet, etc.
The information society is a society in which the capital and profit are no longer the leading drivers, the diversified value is the driving force, and its field is the global world having diversified cultures, and in such society there is a possibility to realize a system in which fair competition and collaboration are complementarily combined based on that a field for competition and collaboration is formed in the global free market. The present writer basically have prospects that it is possible to build a free and fair society that develops steadily by constructing such a system.
Nonprofit companies are the best corporate form as an organization that conducts activities in which such competition and collaboration are complementarily combined. Because, corporate purpose and business activities are fused in the nonprofit companies, since their corporate objectives are not profits but business activities themselves, and they are aiming to achieve them. Thus, they are required organization and operation form that realizes mutually complemental combination of collaboration and competition on inside and outside of companies. To realize such organization and operation form, it is necessary not to be a private company with a competitive principle aimed at profit, but to be a corporate form that is not a public corporation of the collaborative principle intended for public interest. In other words, there is a possibility to realize the fusion of competition and collaboration by setting a category of nonprofit company, that is company of non-profit organizations (NPO), between public enterprises whose collaborative principles bring closure and inefficiency in order to conduct publicly monopolized corporate activities for the purpose of public interest and private enterprises whose competition principles aimed at profit bring nature destruction and disparity and instability of society.
This nonprofit company is a company that aims to contribute to society by fulfills the social needs as corporate purposes and achieves the purpose of the company through the survival of its own activities without the purpose of profit as its name suggests. It is a company with incentive to obtain social evaluation and honor for activities. Of course, even nonprofit company will survive without dependency on donations and assistance, so it is essential to conduct corporate activities to ensure profits necessary for stable survival by corporate activities.
It is preferable that the organization within the nonprofit company is organized as core project teams where competition and collaboration are well engaged, and those are organized a collaboration body and a multiple cooperation body thereof. Organizational staff will work together to collaborate and compete with each other to become a better player of the project so that the project will succeed within the team and aim to further differentiation and launch of new projects among them, by doing so the company will survive and develop. In addition, nonprofit company compete and collaborate with outside in response to the position of the project in the external environment such as the industry, and also conduct external competition and collaboration from a global perspective. In doing so, mutual acquisition and sharing of global information via the Internet makes it possible to conduct meaningful corporate activities in a global world with varied value.
The fields suitable for the development of nonprofit companies are the fields of education, sports, welfare and nursing care, research and development, agriculture, medical field, management and operation of public facilities and spaces, etc. Ironically it is said that these fields are growing fields that are likely to be able to overcome the current economic situation which shows the impasse of the capitalist economic system. However, these fields are inappropriate for stock companies with profit motivation, and nonprofit companies are optimal. As an example of the possibility of concrete development, for example, a worker cooperative (a union of day laborers) has been extended from services such as cleaning to nursing care services etc.(Shigeo Momose, "New Cooperative Organization Revolution" Toyo Keizai Inc., 2003), and by furthermore enterprising it can possibly be active more widely in the field of general education and sports.
Regarding how to procure business funds of nonprofit companies and how to locate their donors, at least the companies that raise funds through the issue of shares are inappropriate because those are bound by the legislation that the shareholders are owners of the company and the shareholders seeking only profit. Financial NPO (Yoshihiro Fujii, "Financial NPO", Iwanami Shoten, 2007) is optimal, but at present it is extremely fine. However, in that case the number of investments and the amount of investment of this financial NPO increase and become more universal to some extent, the banks themselves also survive and there is a possibility of converting basic stance to return to the original role of providing necessary funds for social business and devoting themselves solely to do so. In addition, with the information society progresses, selecting a nonprofit company as a venture company will result in low risk, so increase the possibility that venture capital will be invested even if it obtains only an appropriate return equivalent to bank lending or plus alpha on it.
Furthermore, in order for nonprofit companies to widely deploy in new fields to fulfill social requirements and to facilitate funding for that, it is required to establish a legal system that legally and clearly positions existing forms of nonprofit companies and their activities.
Currently, in order to conduct corporate activities, it is convenient and advantageous to do it as a stock company, so there is no choice but to make it into a stock company. Of course, there are companies that formally are stock companies, but act as nonprofit companies in philosophy and management, but since there are naturally restrictions and limitations, legislation is desirable. Regarding the specific way of legislation, proposals based on knowledge and requests from activities of currently active NPO corporations is expected.
Then, when nonprofit companies become mainstream in the future, private enterprises will decline because only the companies that produce specific goods will lose their existential significance, and the regulation will be strengthened so that appropriate competition will be done. In addition, public enterprises will become unnecessary for proper nonprofit companies to be engaged in work, the public agencies themselves will shrink, and the fiscal burden will be reduced. Thus, a free, fair and non-inefficient society could be realized.