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The reader of Alfred Marshall writings confronts a variety of businessmen portraits that coexist along his epoch. The purpose of this paper is to describe Marshall's understanding of the capitalist‐owner concept, the way in which access to capital determined the emerging role played by entrepreneurs, the differences between entrepreneurs and managers in order to expose the characteristics that defined managerial activities.

A chronological review of Marshall writings revealed that the evolution of his ideas about entrepreneurship is associated to the role played by businessmen as capital owner, risk bearer, innovator, or administrator.

Marshall's analysis is useful to explain: the problem that arises in the firm when property (capital owner) and control (manager) are separated (the principal‐agent relationship); why directors of today's firms are required to embody qualities as administrators (passive superintendents) and innovators (active entrepreneurs); and how to sort out the conflict that occurs in many family firms when the founder (entrepreneur) is unable to cope with the managerial complexities associated to growth (the Marshallian “cycle life” of business and entrepreneurs).

Schumpeter is widely regarded in the economic literature as the one that developed the modern vision of businessmen as a risk bearer. We contend that this vision was already described by Marshall, as well as the distinction between the innovator (entrepreneur) and the orderly administrator of business (manager).

In capital market, share prices of listed companies generally respond to accounting information. In 1995, Ohlson proposed a share valuation model based on two accounting indicators: company residual income and book value of net asset. In 2000, Zhang introduced the thought of option pricing and developed a new accounting valuation model. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the valuation deviation and the influence of some market transaction characteristics on pricing models.

The authors use listed companies from 1999 to 2013 as samples, and conduct comparative analysis with multiple regression.

The main findings are: first, the accounting valuation model is applicable to the capital market as a whole, and its pricing effect increases as years go by; second, in the environment of out capital market, the maturity of investors is one of important factors that causes the information content of residual income less than that of profit per share and lower pricing effect of valuation models; third, when the price earning (PE) of listed companies reaches certain level, the overall explanation capacity of accounting valuation models will become lower as PE gets higher; fourth, as for companies with higher turnover rate and more active transaction, the pricing effect of accounting valuation model is obviously lower; fifth, the pricing effect of accounting valuation models in a bull market is lower than in a bear market.

These findings establish connection between accounting valuation and market transaction characteristics providing an explorable orientation for the future development of accounting valuation theories and models.

An appraisal is normally conducted to determine financial viability of property development projects for several purposes. The residual valuation method is normally used to appraise such projects and the purpose of the paper is to examine its financial viability decision rules (FVDRs) used by practitioners.

The qualitative research approach was adopted based on the case study strategy of enquiry where 48 development appraisal reports from 37 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors registered firms in London were accessed from the internet and critically reviewed.

Site-specific and area-wide development appraisals for planning purposes dominated the reports. Five FVDRs were identified. A development project is financially viable if: (i) computed residual profit expressed as a percentage return is equal to or greater than a determined market benchmark risk-adjusted return; (ii) computed residual profit expressed as a percentage return is positive; (iii) calculated residual land value is greater than open market land value or benchmark land value; (iv) computed residual land value is positive; and (v) there is a surplus when appraisal cost variables including land costs plus allowance for developer’s profit are deducted from gross development value. In some reports, it was discovered some appraisal cost variables were excluded whilst others were inappropriately treated.

The first and third FVDRs are reasonable whilst the remaining are fraught with problems and using them can make development projects that are financially unviable to be viable. Also, excluding relevant cost variables and treating some inappropriately understate the appraisal cost component resulting in incorrect financial viability outcomes. These can lead to wrong recommendations about financial viability being proffered that negatively affect the practitioners’ clientele. The dominance of development appraisals for planning purposes shows the important role development appraisals continue to play in the English planning system.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the first time FVDRs in development appraisals have been systematically investigated in England with resultant new empirical findings and arguments.

Allyn Young′s lectures, as recorded by the young Nicholas Kaldor, survey the historical roots of the subject from Aristotle through to the modern neo‐classical writers. The focus throughout is on the conditions making for economic progress, with stress on the institutional developments that extend and are extended by the size of the market. Organisational changes that promote the division of labour and specialisation within and between firms and industries, and which promote competition and mobility, are seen as the vital factors in growth. In the absence of new markets, inventions as such play only a minor role. The economic system is an inter‐related whole, or a living “organon”. It is from this perspective that micro‐economic relations are analysed, and this helps expose certain fallacies of composition associated with the marginal productivity theory of production and distribution. Factors are paid not because they are productive but because they are scarce. Likewise he shows why Marshallian supply and demand schedules, based on the “one thing at a time” approach, cannot adequately describe the dynamic growth properties of the system. Supply and demand cannot be simply integrated to arrive at a picture of the whole economy. These notes are complemented by eleven articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica which were published shortly after Young′s sudden death in 1929.

A QUESTION On 1 January 1973 Knight, Bishop and Pawn were in partnership as architects on the following terms:

We are at perilous points in the histories of humanity and of planet Earth. Plant and animal species are disappearing at an alarming rate in parallel with ecosystem distress and destruction – with responsibility for and consequences of set firmly upon the furrowed brow of humanity. On one hand there is urgent need to abate global environmental degradation and on the other there is concern for humankind – alleviation of suffering and poverty through economic development. It appears increasingly likely that only great resolve with rapid and appropriate action born out of radical change in our worldview may forestall disaster. Too often, however, “the right‐hand doesn’t know what the left‐hand is doing”. Sustainable development is an area that considers these dual imperatives; examined herein are contributions that can be made to sustainable development by businesses applying organizational excellence principles to activities with environmental and societal implications.

An enterprise may appoint a specialist to assume responsibility for financial management, but his achievements will be constrained to the extent that other functional managers, at all levels, fail to see, as a complement to their particular specialism, their own responsibilities as finance managers. The same point may be made of personnel management.

Seeks to create a more complex understanding of the significance attached to vendors' mix elements by resellers in forming patronage choices. Presents data from a 1980s survey of over 1,200 reseller‐buyers. Reviews the results in terms of first, consumer goods and second, convenience products and shopping goods, comparing US and UK resellers. Shows that resellers' choice criteria vary among these broad product categories. Reveals that it is not possible to describe generally the sourcing determinants for all resellers.

Pesticide residue is a stubborn problem affecting the quality and safety of agricultural products in China, and has not yet been fundamentally resolved. The purpose of this paper is to study farmers' perception of pesticide residues, as well as the main factors affecting their perception from the viewpoint of farmers. Additionally, this research attempts to explore the basic characteristics of pesticide residues arising in the process of producing agricultural products under the prevailing policy background, so as to provide decision‐making references for the Chinese government to deepen the security management system of agricultural products.

The structural equation model (SEM) is an analytical tool for the observation and treatment of latent variables that are difficult to observe directly, and for the consideration of inevitable errors. This paper investigates the main factors affecting farmers' perception of pesticide residues in the investigated regions based on the SEM and samples of 241 farmers in six counties (cities and regions) of three districts in the Jiangsu Province of China.

According to the research, regional difference, farmers' gender, age, years of education, pesticide training and their own demand for safe agricultural products had different influences on their perception of pesticide residues. Additionally, it was difficult to measure the influence of family characteristics on farmers' perception of pesticide residues. Although the present paper only shows a preliminary study, its conclusion provides a reference value for the Chinese government to deepen the reform of the quality and safety regulatory system of agricultural products.

There are many similar studies in overseas countries, but the application of SEM in the study of the main factors affecting farmers' perception of pesticide residues has not been completely reported previously in domestic literatures. The research assumption of this paper has practically verified that corresponding research conclusions of foreign scholars in this field have universality in China.

To determine optimum design and operation parameters for ternary batch distillation under fixed product demand.

In this study, two different scenarios are considered. In the first scenario, the column specification (in terms of number of plates and vapour load) and product demand are given and the optimum operation policy is determined. In the second scenario, with a fixed batch time and product demand, the optimal design (in terms of number of plates and vapour load) and operation policy (in terms of reflux ratio profile) are determined. In both scenarios, maximisation of a profit function reflecting capital cost, operating cost and penalty due to under/over production and customer dissatisfaction is considered. A detailed dynamic model consisting of mass and energy balances with rigorous thermodynamic property calculation model is used. The optimisation problem is solved using modified simulated annealing algorithm.

Two ternary mixtures leading to easy and difficult separation were considered. The off‐cut production and recycling has been found to be more beneficial for difficult separation mixture than that for easy separation mixture. The net profit increases with over production more than under production of the products. This is because of the penalty imposed for customer dissatisfaction. It is better to over produce, as that will achieve the maximum profit and (at the same time) satisfy the customer. Finally, for a typical case study, the net profit with optimum design is found to be about 25 per cent more compared to the net profit obtained with fixed design.

Optimal design and operation of multicomponent batch distillation has received limited attention in the past. Also, these studies were not geared for fixed product demand scenario. The optimisation problem formulation considered in the past, led to unlimited production of products (based on the assumption that all products produced are saleable) to maximise the profitability. Also, there were no penalties for over or under production of the desired products, production of off‐cuts and customer dissatisfaction due to not meeting the order (amount of products and delivery time, etc.). In this work, for the first time, these issues are addressed in the optimisation problem formulation.