Abstract:“Competition” now can be spotted in all walks of life. The author of this thesis, from the cross-cultural degree, analyses the American outlook of competition. So far most researches lacking in the deep analysis of American outlook of competition mostly focuses on the commercial competition. Therefore, the thesis can be helpful to analyze the American outlook of competition, and know more about it.

摘要：“競爭”頻繁地出現(xiàn)在日常生活。本文作者從跨文化角度，分析美國競爭觀特點。目前國內(nèi)研究的“競爭”課題多圍繞商業(yè)競爭，對競爭觀尤其是美國競爭觀的分析比較缺乏，因此，此研究的意義在于有助于分析美國的競爭觀，有助于增加對美國競爭觀的了解。

Key Words: Competition; Outlook of Competition; American Outlook of Competition; Reasons

關鍵詞：競爭；競爭觀；美國競爭觀；原因

作者簡介：芮婧（1988.12-），性別：女，籍貫：江蘇宜興，單位：西南交通大學外國語學院，專業(yè)：語言學與應用語言學。

[中圖分類號]：D089 [文獻標識碼]：A

[文章編號]：1002-2139(2012)-13-0231-02

1、Part One Introduction

Since the “reform and opening-up” policy, China has switched to marketing economy, which results that life is jammed by competitions. However, the collected information finds that most of the concerning research and theory focus on the economic or commercial field. Therefore, the research about the subject that the author has proposed is quite novel and worthy of explorations.

2、Part Two The Definition of Competition

The definition of Competition will be developed in two ways: the first one is the etymology of the word “compete”; the second is to purify some ideas from some proverbs or famous peoples words.

On one hand, the verb of competition is “compete” originating from the latin word “competere”, which means “to strive together”. From this, one idea can be gained that competition is to seek for one thing together and the process is not that easy.

On the other hand, the ideas about competition are diversely made by celebrities. Some scholars thought that “Competition is a process which is conducted by two or more individuals or groups within one special scope to strive for the same needed target.” (宋圭武、周虎臣,2004:1)

From the different explanations above, its clear that competition exists in both the circle of organisms and human society. When one kind of scarce resource is wanted by two or more parties, then competition will be caused.

3、Part Three American Outlook of Competition

Years of accumulation makes American outlook of competition gradually formed and endlessly modified. However, since it is too abstract to illustrate, the following content will choose some concrete conducts to analyze and present.

3.1、The Attitude towards Competition

The American hold positive attitude towards competition. In other words, they encourage and welcome competition. Holding that “competition is everywhere”, they dont think competition is a horrible or cruel figure.

As is well-known, the rivals in the same industry are like the enemies in a war, and therefore, the business place is like a battlefield. However, it is different in America. Adidas and Nike are two famous brands of the sports shoes created in America.Nike established in 1949 is a late-rising brand compared with Adidas . It welcomed the competition actively to imitate Adidas by adding new ideas. Itsmembers are advancing all the time. Winning larger part of market by creating the sole called “waffle”, Nike began to show its strength and it invested great amount of fund in the research and development of the products, which helped it keep its vigour and advantage. 【1】 ( 圣丁，1997： 427)

The positive attitude is widely held by the American and that may be one of the important reasons why the U.S.A can become the global great power.

3.2、The Extention of “Perfect Competition”

“Perfect competition” is an economic term proposed by Michael Porter. It advocates the freedom and equality in the market and it is said that this state can be found in the stock market. Actually, the core concept of it has been extended to various fields of American society and the mind of American people.

In the Americans mind, competition is bound to be fair and the opponents can be friends when they step out the competitive place. Competition creates a perfect opportunity for people to materialize and extend their individual freedom.

In addition, another extended thought of perfect competition is the concept of win-win strategy. It means that the competitors can not only compete with each other but also cooperate to win benefits together. It conforms to one theory called “non-zero-sum competition”. The American choose the win-win game by respecting the pursuit of perfect competition. Therefore, the Americans dont think competition and cooperation are in conflicts.

3.3、The Basic Method to Win Competition

To win a game ,two ways are frequently contained: prefect the existing skills; seek to innovate.

The core of the method is the second one——innovation. One Domestic Policy Council Office of Science and Technology Policy on February, 2006 which is named American Competitiveness Initiative says, “America''s economic strength and global leadership depend in large measure on our Nations ability to generate and harness the latest in scientific and technological developments and to apply these developments to real world applications.”(White House, 2006:3) Meanwhile, “Our prosperity is no accident. It is the product of risk-takers, innovators, and visionaries. ” (White House, 2006:6) From the official words, the value of innovation is apparent to see.

4、Part Four Conclusion

This thesis explores the American outlook of competition beginning by defining “competition” and “outlook of competition” which are the general concepts that can help better development of the content.

Hope these suggestions will do some help to the regulation of Chinese competition. Meanwhile, the thesis also aims to help avoid the conflicts when competitions happen between China and America.

Additionally, the research in this thesis is not complete because it can not contain all the features of American traditional view of competitions, and therefore, more follow-up researches are needed to discuss other features.

Notes：

【1】Translated by the author. The Chinese quotation is from 圣?。?997），Harvard Business School: Master of Business Administration,經(jīng)濟日報出版社，北京，第427頁.

Reference：

[1]、George W. Bush, American Competitiveness Initiative (2006), Domestic Policy Council Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House.

[2]、宋圭武、周虎臣（2004），《經(jīng)濟競爭論》，甘肅人民出版社。

[3]、圣?。?997），Harvard Business School: Master of Business Administration,經(jīng)濟日報出版社。