But at least five factors are particularly significant at a time states and regions are increasingly competing with one another for jobs and industry.

Because of tightened budgets, consumers have been forced to seek value and the major fast food chains are increasingly competing for those consumer dollars.

As the walls around the world disappear, companies can increasingly compete everywhere.

Growing cities, expanding industry and biofuels are increasingly competing with agriculture for water.

That is largely because these centers are increasingly competing with for-profit health care organizations, other industries and one another.

As world population rises to 10 billion, biofuels will increasingly compete with starvation.

Those trying to sell their wares are increasingly competing with others who make many of the same points more succinctly for free.

The economic downturn of the early 1980s reduced demand for sailboats, while manufacturers increasingly competed with the used boat market.

Last year it made more profit than any of the clearing (commercial) banks against which it increasingly competes.

Still, user-created material increasingly competes for the audiences of traditional media companies and holds some appealing qualities as a business model.