Benchmarking
As defined in the text, benchmarking is a systematic approach to identifying the best practices to help an organization take action to improve performance.
Benchmarking can be viewed, at a minimum, from two sides: (1) The consumer benefits from companies competing with each other to produce the best possible product in the given environment (e.g. smart-phone producers copying and trying to out-do one another) . (2) The consumer (and environment) is harmed as companies compete with each other to arrive at the lowest common denominator that is still legal (e.g. car manufacturers competing for lowest cost production method while sacrificing safety components and using cheap, low-quality materials)
Overall, benchmarking can be "good" or "bad" depending on whether producers are primarily competing for highest quality or lowest cost. Sales Prices and markups can also come into play where benchmarking is concerned.
In your opinion, is this ethical? That is, is all fair in the race for high profit or should consumer welfare be the leading consideration?