imperfect (adjective, im-per-fect, \ ɪmˈpɜːrfekt \) competition (noun, com-pe-ti-tion, \ ˌkɑːmpəˈtɪʃən \)
Definition: is a common market structure, a situation where a wide number of sellers offer dissimilar products or services. Unlike a perfect competition, where all the sellers produce the same goods or offer similar services at the relatively same prices, an imperfect competition (being a trade structure of the modern, real market) involves a possibility of customers giving their preference to one particular seller, thus allowing that seller to manipulate the prices. In the imperfectly competitive market, a near-monopoly power of one or a couple of suppliers is a common phenomenon. Being imperfect by nature (as its name suggests), such a market structure allows sellers to gain profit by offering non-identical products and raising the prices, which allows them to obtain revenue and attracts other businesses to enter the market.
In a Sentence:
- In the conditions of an imperfect competition, it is difficult to sell alongside with those large monopolistic companies.
- An imperfect competition implies that there’s no (or a little) competition on the market since there are only a couple of companies that successfully sell their products and control the prices on the market.
- No matter how attractive the theory of a perfect market looks, an imperfect competition is the real structure of the modern-day economy.
Synonyms and related words: perfect competition, microeconomics, market structure, market forces, imperfectly competitive market, monopoly, monopolistic competition
