ASSESSMENT OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE PROJECT
To evaluate the social and economic impact of the proposed solutions, a scenario analysis will be carried out, integrating the information developed with the Life Cycle Assessment. The scenario analysis involves the reconstruction of the baseline scenario from different profiles (political, legal, technological, economic, environmental, governance). To reconstruct the baseline scenario, both primary and secondary qualitative and quantitative data will be used. At least two alternative scenarios will be designed, depending on the main technological innovations that the project intends to develop. In order to build the new scenarios, the Delphi method or other qualitative approaches will be used, as they are particularly suitable in the research context. The scenario analysis will allow: (i) to evaluate the impact of the innovations developed from different points of view, with particular reference to social and economic aspects and (ii) to develop managerial and policy implications. Thanks to this methodology, the most appropriate governance mechanisms will be reconstructed and evaluated to support the commercial development and diffusion of the proposed solutions, in an evolutionary logic, favouring the closing of cycles, and maintaining the value of resources and their reuse. Among them, the introduction of specific provisions in terms of eco-design and the application of systems deriving from the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR). The scenario analysis will also allow the evaluation of the main costs and benefits, in a logic of total economic value, associated with the solutions that the project intends to develop, as well as examining their feasibility and effectiveness, following a systemic approach (i.e. the considered solutions in highly complex reference systems).
Given the centrality of users in the diffusion of the solutions promoted by the project, an investigation will be carried out through a questionnaire, on a representative sample of potential users, to understand their propensity to adopt new behaviours, the mechanisms to incentivize the new behaviours, the role of information in processes of change and the willingness to pay for similar solutions. Data collected through survey questionnaire will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Behavioural models will be developed to understand and predict user/consumer behaviour. All the information resulting from this investigation will be included into the scenario analysis and will enrich the managerial and policies implications.