The Importance of Competitiveness in New Internationalized and Competitive Environment of Pharmaceutical Industry

Competitiveness is considered as a key criterion for assessing the success of countries, industries and companies. World Economic Forum defines competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity. Moreover, competitiveness can be defined as acquisition more market share, greater profitability and long-term stability and growth of these indicators thereby improving the welfare and living standards of people. Putting it in perspective, companies and industries must be well competitive in domestic and international markets in order to survive. With respect to recent competitive and dynamic environment if companies want to be successful in competition arena, they must have competitive advantage which means creating and sustaining superior performance. The strength of competition depends on both the conduct of firms and the external business environment in which they compete, the state of infrastructure, legal framework and the effectiveness of the financial system. Mostly, barriers to competition in developing countries stemming from inappropriate government policies, and anti-competitive behavior of firms are common.