Although the development of information technology currently points towards more competition, the degree to which companies choose to take advantage of it could vary markedly from one industry to the next.

ECONOMIST: Firms and their suppliers

The biggest is the degree of competition in the market, which governments have generally encouraged by allowing the construction of rival infrastructure to the telephone network, usually in the form of cable networks.

ECONOMIST: High-speed Internet access

Crucially, the European social model also enjoyed an amazingly low degree of external competition.

ECONOMIST: European politics

A. degree faces real competition these days.

FORBES: The Bottom Line on B-Schools

You didn't always need a degree, and your competition was pretty much limited to your neighbors.

CNN: Transcript: Obama's State of the Union speech

In diving competition, scores are earned on the basis of two criteria: degree of difficulty and execution.

FORBES: What All Leaders Should Learn From Olympic Divers

If we don't get more of our young people educated to degree level, we're going to get blown away by the global competition.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | 'Study now, pay later' fee advice

Athletes are mostly apart from this latest argument, and to the degree the Olympics are about them (as they surely should be), any distraction from their competition is a shame.

FORBES: Getting to Yes