Competitors in Science and in Business

Competition analysis is another important step before a project can start.
For a commercial project aiming to a product or a method to be offered commercially the following competition aspects need to be taken into consideration:

  • Is the product new?
  • Is the product significantly better than existing ones?
  • Is someone else developing a product in the same direction?
  • Does any filed patent interfere with the product or method?

For a scientific project, aiming to a publication, or many, competition is different:

  • Is anyone working in the same field?
  • How far is a potential competing research group?
  • Does my project cover new aspects?
  • Has the work already been done, but got forgotten?

These are a few questions, a concrete project needs a deeper evaluation based on it.