In the modern globalized economy there are some concepts which are very important for the current socio-economic system. One of them is competition. A specific field that competition has spread is geography; i.e. competition among territorial units (cities, regions or states). There are scholars who defend it and scholars who criticize it. This paper focuses on the overview of these opinions and on the weak issues of territorial competition which show its incoherence. Within this context, and through a broader study over the behaviour of a firm and a territory, the cases of Greece and Dubai present remarkable interest regarding their behaviour under bad economic performance and its comparison with the behaviour of a firm, particularly in case of default.