Reframing competition as a non-beneficial interaction in economic systems

This theoretical work reconsiders the classification of competition in economic theory through a transdisciplinary framework grounded in complexity science, biological and ecological sciences, and evolutionary economics. We conceptualize economic ecosystems as real complex adaptive systems (CAS), structurally embedded within broader social and biological domains. Within this framework, competition is classified as a non-beneficial (–/–) interaction. The article then examines the systemic proposition that, when competitive relationships become dominant, intense, or exclusionary, they may undermine long-term systemic resilience by disrupting interdependence, reducing diversity, and accelerating resource depletion. Based on a transdisciplinary, critical, and integrative literature review of 198 sources, we construct a typology of beneficial and non-beneficial interactions and introduce a theoretical formula to evaluate systemic equilibrium in economic systems. While the model is conceptual by design, it provides a foundation for future empirical testing via network analysis and agent-based modeling. Grounded in panarchy theory, the article frames economic systems as structurally interlinked with higher-order ecological and social dynamics. We conclude that, within a CAS-based and panarchically embedded view of economic systems, maintaining the normative centrality of competition as inherently beneficial is theoretically inconsistent with its classification as a non-beneficial interaction, even when competitive processes may coincide with perceived short-term gains, localized efficiencies, or innovation outcomes.