Reframing competition as a non-beneficial interaction in economic systems

Abstract 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. Similar content being viewed by others Data Availability No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study. References Acemoglu D, Ozdaglar A, Tahbaz-Salehi A (2015) Systemic risk and stability in financial networks. 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Ecol Lett 24(2):239–248. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13635 Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Prof. Viktoriya Semeshenko for insightful discussions on complex adaptive systems from a physics perspective, and to Prof. Christian Arias for helpful methodological feedback on the review design. The authors also thank Constanza Gomez for reviewing the ecosystemic equilibrium model and providing valuable feedback on its conceptual coherence. Funding No funding was received for conducting this study. Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions MST: Conceptualization; Methodology; Formal analysis; Investigation; Writing – original draft; Visualization. GM: Investigation; Writing – review & editing; Validation. Corresponding author Ethics declarations Competing interests All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Appendix A Theoretical expansions Appendix A Theoretical expansions 1.1 A.1 The illusion of mutualism in modern capitalist logic Early capitalist thought, exemplified by Smith (1776), conceptualized voluntary market exchange as a cooperative mechanism generating mutual benefit. This alignment of self-interest with collective welfare became foundational in mainstream economic theory and policy. Friedman (1962) extended this logic, asserting that unrestricted individual gain would naturally produce systemic mutualism. In evolutionary theory, a parallel notion appears in Evolutionarily Stable Strategies (ESS) (Smith and Price 1973; Dawkins 1976), where self-interested behavior may, under specific conditions, lead to equilibrium. Yet such conditions are narrowly defined and rarely sustained at the systemic level. Contemporary evidence suggests that these theoretical claims rarely translate into genuinely beneficial dynamics at the systemic level. With few exceptions—such as institutional ecosystems fostering entrepreneurship, often supported by public intervention (Isenberg 2010; Roundy et al. 2017; Audretsch and Belitski 2017; Cobben et al. 2022)—modern capitalism is predominantly shaped by non-beneficial interactions. A notable case is financialization, where capital is redirected from productive sectors toward speculative activity. This parasitic dynamic, empirically demonstrated by Arcand et al. (2015) and Ullah et al. (2024) extracts value from the real economy while contributing little to systemic development, generating recurrent crises ultimately absorbed by the public sector (Stern and Stiglitz 2023). Predatory interactions and competitive dynamics also dominate the system. Autor et al. (2020) show how the emergence of “superstar firms” concentrates economic power, while Stiglitz (2015) highlights how corporate dominance fosters exploitative and unequal structures. These dynamics displace any meaningful form of mutualism, revealing that modern capitalism structurally prioritizes extraction over cooperation. The prevailing capitalist configuration has institutionalized non-beneficial interactions, upheld by the dogma that competition is inherently desirable (Friedman 1962; Jelinek and Porter 1990; Harvey 2007; Mankiw et al. 2023). From a complex systems perspective, however, these dynamics undermine collective benefit and jeopardize long-term systemic stability. Although empirical data on economic ecosystems remain limited—partly due to the longstanding assumption that competition is inherently beneficial—ecological research offers a well-established baseline. Studies show that in stable biological ecosystems, beneficial interactions—such as mutualism and facilitation—typically account for more than 70% of total inter-agent relationships (Bascompte and Jordano 2007), while non-beneficial interactions, including competition, play a structurally limited role (Chesson 2000; Thébault and Fontaine 2010; Clark 2025; Liang et al. 2025). This prevalence is a key factor in sustaining long-term equilibrium. 1.2 A.2 Market failures and externalities as emergent phenomena From a complex adaptive systems perspective, externalities may also be interpreted as emergent outcomes of interdependent interactions among economic agents embedded in broader social and biological systems. In panarchically integrated systems (Fig. 1), economic actions can generate effects that propagate across nested domains through feedback loops and non-linear dynamics. This perspective suggests that some phenomena commonly treated as bounded deviations (Samuelson and Nordhaus 2010; Mankiw et al. 2023; Varian and Melitz 2024) may also reflect systemic interdependence operating across scales. Environmental pollution, for example, may not be adequately understood only as an uninternalized external cost (Coase 2013; Nordhaus 2017), but as the systemic outcome of a network of non-beneficial interactions that destabilize the interface between economic and biological ecosystems. Similarly, monopolies and social inequality may be understood not merely as deviations from an ideal market structure, as suggested by mainstream theory (Mankiw et al. 2023; Varian and Melitz 2024), but systemic symptoms that emerge when interactions among economic agents are predominantly shaped by non-beneficial relationships—such as competition, predation, or parasitism—that erode equilibrium, diversity, and resilience (Thorogood et al. 2023; Hisano et al. 2024). From this perspective, what dominant theory frames as market failures or externalities—whether negative or positive— may also be interpreted as emergent signals of systemic (dis)equilibrium. Rather than exceptions to an otherwise optimal market structure, they can be examined as outcomes of underlying interaction configurations: predominantly non-beneficial relationships tend to produce negative systemic effects, while beneficial ones give rise to positive emergent outcomes. Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Tedesco, M.S., Marquez, G. Reframing competition as a non-beneficial interaction in economic systems. J Evol Econ 36, 63 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-026-00982-5 Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-026-00982-5 Keywords - Economic ecosystems - Competition - Complex adaptive systems - Evolutionary economics - Panarchy theory - Systemic resilience