ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that competing enterprises in markets are embedded in an array of social networks, social relationships that manage how they competitively relate to each other to arrive various market outcomes, such as a market price. As a result, market competition does not 'manage' enterprises, but enterprises manage competition. This is most clearly seen in markets where competition and market outcomes are managed by private market governance organizations, such as trade associations, cartels, and price leadership. Heterodox economics also has the same problems with cartels. The most important form of potential instability in a market is price competition and the major objective of the enterprises in markets is to produce a form of control that will produce a stable market. 'Regulation' is a process consisting of the intentional restriction of a subject's choice of activity by an entity not directly party to or involved in that activity.
