Competitiveness and competition: the problem of interrelationship

The paper considers how a applicability of terminological apparatus of the theory of competition to studying problems of competitiveness of entrepreneurial structures can be applied in accordance with the modern methodology. It discusses the issues unfolding in the scientific periodicals of the discussion on the concept of competitiveness**, describes the role of competitiveness of business actors in the development of business in the space of the competitive environment of the Russian economy. The author draws attention to the need to study the history of the development of ideas about competitiveness in the Russian economic science that reveals the cause of the current status of the theory of competitiveness of economic actors. Special attention is given to questions of determination of level structures the competitiveness of entrepreneurial actors. The article examines the main theoretical approaches to the understanding the concepts of competitiveness and identified fundamental contradictions between them, which allows to successfully progress in solving the scientific problems in the substantiation of competitiveness of the Russian enterprises and the national economy as a whole. On the basis of differentiation of competition and competitiveness of entrepreneurial actors, the author gives the evidence to formulate grounds of competitiveness, and this helps to form a consistent core of the system of theoretical ideas about competitiveness in entrepreneurship.