We study how a durable-goods monopolist upgrades heterogeneous consumers in an infinite horizon model of quality growth. While unable to charge consumers based on their purchase histories, the monopolist may engage in both inter- and intra-temporal price discriminations: charge different prices for goods of the same quality over time and offer different buyback prices for earlier, lower quality versions. First, we consider that there is a frictionless secondhand market such that consumers are anonymous. The monopolist always keeps high-value consumers abreast of the latest development. Moreover, when consumers are similar, the monopolist also upgrades low-value consumers at the same pace as the high-value ones. Otherwise, the monopolist completely ignores low-value consumers and focuses only on the high-value ones. Second, we consider where there is no secondhand market and consumers are semi-anonymous.If consumers and the monopolist are impatient, the outcome is the same as in an anonymous market. Otherwise, besides the efficient pooling equilibrium, there are three interesting inefficient upgrade patterns where high-value consumers always upgrade every period: the low-value consumers (1) keep a constant quality difference from the high-value ones, (2) upgrade in cycles but below the quality frontier, and (3) upgrade to the frontier in cycles.

In contrast to “search goods” whose true quality can be determined before inspection, we examine informa- tion goods that are “experience goods” -- goods whose true quality can only be determined through use. We analyze a “version-to-upgrade” strategy where a monopolist generates vertically differentiated versions as bridges that lead consumers to experience the goods so that they can assess their true quality, and then provide upgrades to consumers that initially purchase lower quality versions. Adopting a two-stage model, we find that if consumers have homogeneous expectations about quality before experience, then the version-to-upgrade strategy involves upgrading all the consumers that in the first stage purchased the low quality version. In this way, consumers that upgrade effectively pay a tax for learning. When consumers have heterogeneous expectations about quality before experience, if consumers are pessimistic, then the version-to-upgrade strategy still drives all consumers to upgrade. However, if consumers are optimistic, then, the version-to-upgrade strategy may induce only some of the consumers that initially purchased the low quality version to upgrade. As profits from upgrades increase, the monopolist sets the quality of the low quality version to the lowest quality that can feasibly reveal the true quality, justifying the use of trial or demonstration versions.

The proceedings publish selected papers from the 2nd International Conference on New Computational Social Science, focusing on the following five aspects: Big data acquisition and analysis, Integration of qualitative research and quantitative research, Sociological Internet experiment research, Application of ABM simulation method in Sociology Research, Research and development of new social computing tools. With the rapid development of information technology, especially sweeping progress in the Internet of things, cloud computing, social networks, social media and big data, social computing, as a data-intensive science, is an emerging field that leverages the capacity to collect and analyze data with an unprecedented breadth, depth and scale. It represents a new computing paradigm and an interdisciplinary field of research and application. A broad comprehension of major topics involved in social computing is important for both scholars and practitioners. This proceedings presents and discusses key concepts and analyzes the state-of-the-art of the field. The conference not only gave insights on social computing, but also affords conduit for future research in the field. Social computing has two distinct trends: One is on the social science issues, such as computational social science, computational sociology, social network analysis, etc; the other is on the use of computational techniques. Finally, some new challenges ahead are summarized, including interdisciplinary cooperation and training, big data sharing for scientific data mashups, and privacy protect.

"This book covers emerging e-business theories, architectures, and technologies that are emphasized to stimulate and disseminate cutting-edge information into research and business communities in a timely fashion"--Provided by publisher.

The use of solid catalysts for the upgrade of renewable sources gives the opportunity to combine the two main cores of green chemistry, that is, on the one hand, the set-up of sustainable processes and, on the other, the use of biomass-derived materials. Solid catalysts have taken on a leading role in traditional petrochemical processes and could represent a key tool in new biorefinery-driven technologies. This book will cover topics related to the preparation and use of heterogeneous catalytic systems for the transformation of renewable sources, as well as of materials deriving from agro-industrial wastes and by-products. At the same time, the ever-increasing importance of bioproducts, due to the acceptance and request of consumers, makes the upgrade of biomass into chemicals and materials not only an environmental issue, but also an economical advantage.