ABSTRACTOne of the most interesting results in value theory is that positive profits are consistent with negative surplus value. This result is obtained, using a two‐commodity linear model with joint production. Since existence of an inferior process is always implied in a two‐commodity model, the result has been supposed to be applicable to a limited type of technology. The purpose of this paper is to show that positive profits with negative surplus value do not necessarily imply the existence of such a process in higher dimensions. Although a different type of inferiority is implied, such a definition of inferiority is quite different from what is normally underst