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Sustainable Development Goals Series
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Silvia Rita Sedita

Silvia Blasi Editors

Rethinking
Clusters
Place-based Value Creation in Sustainability
Transitions
Sustainable Development Goals Series
World leaders adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Providing in-depth knowledge,
this series fosters comprehensive research on these global targets to end
poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change.
The sustainability of our planet is currently a major concern for the global
community and has been a central theme for a number of major global
initiatives in recent years. Perceiving a dire need for concrete benchmarks
toward sustainable development, the United Nations and world leaders
formulated the targets that make up the seventeen goals. The SDGs call for
action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting Earth and its
life support systems. This series on the Sustainable Development Goals aims
to provide a comprehensive platform for scientific, teaching and research
communities working on various global issues in the field of geography, earth
sciences, environmental science, social sciences, engineering, policy, planning,
and human geosciences in order to contribute knowledge towards achieving
the current 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
This Series is organized into eighteen subseries: one based around each of
the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, and an eighteenth subseries,
“Connecting the Goals,” which serves as a home for volumes addressing
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contributing to the series, please contact the Publisher: Zachary Romano
[Zachary.Romano@springer.com].

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15486

Silvia Rita Sedita • Silvia Blasi
Editors

Rethinking Clusters
Place-based Value Creation
in Sustainability Transitions
Editors
Silvia Rita Sedita Silvia Blasi
Department of Economics Department of Economics
and Management and Management
University of Padova University of Padova
Padova, Italy Padova, Italy

ISSN 2523-3084     ISSN 2523-3092 (electronic)

Sustainable Development Goals Series
ISBN 978-3-030-61922-0    ISBN 978-3-030-61923-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61923-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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Preface

The book is inspired by the discussions held at the University of Padova in

2019, during the second international workshop on Rethinking Clusters: The
local and global scale of sustainability transitions. Some of the chapters are
revised versions of papers presented at the workshop, others are novel contri-
butions collected through an open call to members of the community of
scholars interested in the topic.
The book is addressed to scholars working on sustainable development
issues intersecting the disciplines of Regional Studies, Economic Geography,
and Management. In particular, it would appeal to geographers, economic
development, business innovation, as well as sustainability transitions
researchers. The book could be used in an economic geography class or a
sustainability and technology transition class. Moreover, the present volume
represents not only an interesting contribution within the academic land-
scape, but could also be of support to professionals in charge of designing
policies for sustaining the development of regions and consultants working
for companies oriented to embrace the goals of social and environmental
sustainability.

v
Foreword

This edited volume, craftfully put together by Silvia Rita Sedita and Silvia Blasi,
resonates with a shift in thinking around regional development that reflects both
a departure from and a continuation of previous research on regional economic
dynamics, agglomerations, and clusters. Extant theory in regional studies has for
many decades emphasized the embeddedness of localized production and inno-
vation systems in concrete territorial contexts, emphasizing how local capabili-
ties, networks, and institutions enable and constrain regional development
pathways. Celebrating conceptual and methodological pluralism, it has demon-
strated the virtues and productive force of research that does not stop short of
disciplinary traditions and fault- lines. Already in early work in Italy’s industrial
districts, the recursive relationships between territory, economy, and society
have been at the heart of theorizing regional development and of investigating
the emancipatory and progressive potential of innovation, knowledge, and learn-
ing economies (Asheim, 2000). This resulted in well-known theoretical frame-
works like regional innovation systems, learning regions, and clusters that are
widely used not only to inform empirical analysis but that have also become
poignant framings for policy design, implementation, and evaluation.
While originating from “niche” heterodox economic thinking, this schol-
arly literature has become increasingly mainstream and influential over the
past three to four decades. Its coming-of-age really became manifest through
the introduction and adoption of Smart Specialisation as the designated
approach for EU regional development policy. Since 2014, any EU region
applying for EU Structural Funds must have a Smart Specialisation strategy
in place, with €80 billion made available to S3 initiatives between 2014 and
2020. The adoption of Smart Specialisation as a core EU policy concept and
conditionality for funding witnesses the maturation of innovation-based
regional development thinking and practice and the successful evolution of
what once were considered rather peripheral themes or topic for regional
policy (Foray, 2015). Academic ideas around endogenous regional develop-
ment, place-based innovation, entrepreneurship, and value creation have
gained enormous political traction over time.
The collection of chapters in this edited volume pays tribute and testimony
to the rising star of academic work on regional development and innovation
yet challenges this body of literature by embracing a more expansive under-
standing of value creation. A key contribution of the book concerns its depar-
ture from conventional contributions in the literature on regional development
and innovation by transcending a largely economic understanding of value

vii
viii Foreword

creation geared to competitiveness and prosperity alone. Motivated by the

persistent challenges of environmental and social sustainability imperatives,
it calls greater attention for the directionality of regional development. In
doing so, it puts increased primacy on what for a considerable time have been
considered (negative) side effects of economic development and growth,
notably climate change and other environmental “externalities” as well as
growing social inequality and political polarization. Considering the multiple
crises that many regions are currently facing, such a holistic understanding of
regional development and value creation is really overdue.
As such, the chapters in this book make a welcome addition to the recent
“normative turn” in regional innovation policy and studies. In the words of
Uyarra et al. (2019, p. 2359), increased prevalence of social and environmen-
tal development externalities “has shifted the debate on the rationales for
intervention from market and system failures to accommodate more transfor-
mative views but also other approaches rooted in the notion of public value
and has led innovation scholars to question not just the how and how much of
innovation but also key issues of directionality, legitimacy and responsibil-
ity.” A more explicit and expansive engagement with value creation thus
requires asking questions such as what future do we want, why do we want
this future, who defines it, and transformation by and for whom? As many
chapters demonstrate, this extends our analytical gaze towards more capa-
cious forms of innovation that encompass technological, social, grassroot,
and public-sector innovation (Coenen & Morgan, 2020), opens our eyes to
the potential dark sides of innovation (Biggi & Giuliani, 2020), and effec-
tively opens up a more contested view on innovation and regional develop-
ment that forefronts the notion of responsibility (Jakobsen, Fløysand, &
Overton, 2019). While refreshing and original on many accounts, the book
remains however loyal to a central premise in the regional development lit-
erature namely that of being empirically grounded and place-based.
In investigating expansively the value of innovation (Mazzucato, 2018), this
volume and its respective chapters thus afford a timely perspective on the role of
clusters, local development, “green” industry dynamics, local production sys-
tems, and social entrepreneurship for regional futures. Conceptually it makes pro-
ductive use of the emerging trading zones between sustainable transitions theory
and literature on place-based innovation. Methodologically, it breaks however
beyond the usual mold of qualitative case studies and adds richness and flexibility
in terms of use of quantitative data and multi-methods of analysis beyond the
usual suspects. In toto, I would therefore like to congratulate the editors and
authors for pulling together such an accomplished, constructive yet off-the-
beaten-track contribution to the geography of innovation and sustainability transi-
tions that provides useful and much-needed inspiration for the coming “decade of
action” for realizing the UNs Sustainable Development Goals.

Lars Coenen
The Mohn Centre for Innovation and Regional Development,
Western Norway
University of Applied Science & Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute
University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
Foreword ix

References
Asheim, B. T. (2000). Industrial districts: The contributions of Marshall and beyond. In
G. Clark, M. Feldman, & M. Gertler (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of economic geogra-
phy (pp. 413–431). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Biggi, G., & Giuliani, E. (2020). The noxious consequences of innovation: What do we
know? Industry and Innovation. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2020.1726729.
Coenen, L., & Morgan, K. (2020). Evolving geographies of innovation: Existing para-
digms, critiques and possible alternatives. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift-Norwegian
Journal of Geography, 74(1), 13–24.
Foray, D. (2015). Smart specialisation: Opportunities and challenges for regional innova-
tion policy. London: Routledge.
Jakobsen, S. E., Fløysand, A., & Overton, J. (2019). Expanding the field of Responsible
Research and Innovation (RRI)—From responsible research to responsible innovation.
European Planning Studies, 27(12), 2329–2343.
Mazzucato, M. (2018). The value of everything: Making and taking in the global economy.
London: Hachette.
Uyarra, E., Ribeiro, B., & Dale-Clough, L. (2019). Exploring the normative turn in regional
innovation policy: Responsibility and the quest for public value. European Planning
Studies, 27(12), 2359–2375.
Contents

Part I Linking Sustainability, Innovation

and Regional Development


Unravelling the Sustainable Resilient Region:
Exploring Regional Resilience in Sustainable Transition��������������������   3
Stefania Oliva and Luciana Lazzeretti

Green Invention as Leverage for Economic Growth
in Locally Collaborative European Regions������������������������������������������ 17
Ivan De Noni, Andrea Ganzaroli, and Luigi Orsi

Regional Differences in the Generation of Green
Technologies: The Role of Local Recombinant
Capabilities and Academic Inventors���������������������������������������������������� 33
Gianluca Orsatti, Francesco Quatraro, and Alessandra Scandura

Spin-offs, Environmental KIBS and the Role
of Universities for Sustainability������������������������������������������������������������ 53
Eleonora Di Maria, Valentina De Marchi, and Elena Bonel

The Role of the DSOs in the Energy Transition
Towards Sustainability. A Case Study from Italy �������������������������������� 65
Marina Bertolini and Silvia Blasi

Part II The Sustainability Turn in Clusters

and Industrial Districts

Bioclusters and Sustainable Regional Development ���������������������������� 81

Frans L. P. Hermans
Industry Clusters, Intermediary Activities
and Sustainable Transitions: A Call for Integration
of Multiple Conceptual Frameworks? �������������������������������������������������� 93
Rowena Vnuk and Allan O’Connor

Rethinking Clusters in the Sense of Innovation,
Inclusion, and Green Growth ���������������������������������������������������������������� 101
Iván G. Peyré Tartaruga and Fernanda Queiroz Sperotto

xi
xii Contents


Factors of Environmental Sustainability in Italian
Industrial Districts: A Composite Environmental
Sustainability Index �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 111
Marco Bellandi, Maria J. Ruiz-Fuensanta, and Erica Santini

The Circular Economy in the Tuscan Fashion Industry:
A Value Chain Approach ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 125
Natalia Faraoni, Tommaso Ferraresi, and Sara Turchetti

Part III The Sustainability Orientation

on Entrepreneurial Actions


How to Successfully Translate Shared Value
Agendas into Action? Evidences from the Case of 21 Invest �������������� 143
Fernando G. Alberti and Federica Belfanti

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation
Between Global North and Global South: The Ashoka Case�������������� 159
Edoardo Bega, Luca Mongelli, Francesco Rullani,
and Silvia Rita Sedita

Social Entrepreneurship: Determinants of Action in Italy������������������ 175
Silvia Rita Sedita and Alan Trovò

Environmental Innovations and Green Skills
in the Nordic Countries �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 195
Christian Richter Østergaard, Jacob Rubæk Holm, Eric Iversen,
Torben Schubert, Asgeir Skålholt, and Markku Sotarauta

The Impact of End-User Aggregation
on the Electricity Business Ecosystem: Evidence from Europe���������� 213
Alessandro Barbiero, Silvia Blasi, and Jan Marc Schwidtal

Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 227
Introduction

This book addresses a cogent aspect of regional development: how to pursue

a sustainable development transforming the modalities of value creation.
There is a growing awareness that GDP and other traditional economic statis-
tics suffer from not being able to grasp the impact of the economic growth on
the environment and the society at large. This lack of attention for the side
effects of myopic trajectories of regional development generated in the long
run unexpected negative externalities, in terms of increased inequalities and
general social discontent (Rodríguez-Pose, 2018). Hence, we are stimulated
by the opportunity to understand how regional structures and organizations
may significantly play a crucial role in changing the nature and impact of the
value generation process. In this perspective, new organizational forms and
business models offer the opportunity to reach the objective of a sustainable
economic, social, and environmental development path, which need to be
sustained by specific policy interventions. As a consequence, regional dynam-
ics should be reshaped by shifting attention from purely economic perfor-
mance indicators to others, more capable of monitoring the capacity of
regions to create value in a way that endorses a sustainable development
trajectory.
Sustainability is a socially founded, policy- and action-oriented multidi-
mensional concept. It is grabbing a lot of attention among scholars from vari-
ous disciplines and eventually leads to the establishment of a research area
known as “sustainability science” (Clark & Dickson, 2003; Swart, Raskin, &
Robinson, 2004). Since the late 1980s the sustainability concept has been at
the center of not only the natural environmental sciences (e.g., physics, chem-
istry, and biology) but also other environmental subdisciplines such as psy-
chology, sociology, economics, law, and philosophy (Robinson, 2004). In
particular, topics related to sustainability transition have attracted a lot of
attention in the academia as a growing field of research that analyses co-­
evolution of new technologies, changes in markets, user practices, policy and
cultural discourses, and governing institutions in a systemic perspective
(Elzen, Geels, & Green, 2004; Geels, Hekkert, & Jacobsson, 2008; Smith,
Voß, & Grin, 2010). Since 2007, when Walker and Shove (2007) note the
importance of contextual factors such as the political environment and the
anticipatory knowledge of local transition managers for transition processes,
geographers have called for a detailed examination of the importance of place
specificity for sustainability transitions (Lawhon & Murphy, 2012), and
­studies have indeed taken up this challenge. Scholars of sustainability transi-

xiii
xiv Introduction

tions have shown an increased interest in geographical aspects of sustainabil-

ity transitions (Smith et al., 2010), and investigated the complex and
multidimensional shift towards sustainability in order to stimulate societies
and economies to adopt sustainable modes of production and consumption in
areas such as transport, energy, housing, agriculture and food, communica-
tion, and health care (Geels, 2005, 2011; Jacobsson & Bergek, 2004; Markard,
Raven, & Truffer, 2012; Meijer & Hekkert, 2007; Rohracher, 2001; Smith,
Stirling, & Berkhout, 2005). Transition is here understood as shifts or “sys-
tem innovations” between distinctive socio-technical configurations encom-
passing not only new technologies, but also corresponding changes in
markets, user practices, policy and cultural discourses, as well as governing
institutions (Geels et al., 2008). However, the sustainability transition topic
has been so far addressed adopting mono-disciplinary approaches, which fall
short in analysing complex societal problems. This raises the necessity of
adopting multidisciplinary approaches. Multidisciplinarity refers to a particu-
lar (policy) problem or an (other) observable phenomenon when different
disciplinary viewpoints are adopted. This basically assumes the use of differ-
ent scientific approaches (e.g., concepts, models, methods, findings) for the
main aim of providing a coherent picture of the relevant problem, possible
explanations as well as the best applicable solutions.
In order to provide the most comprehensive picture of new sources of
value creation, and a roadmap of sustainability oriented initiatives, the book
collects contributions that tackle this issue from a variety of perspective. It is,
in fact, necessary to adopt a systemic approach where the macro-, meso-, and
micro-level of analysis are intertwined.
The first part of the book adopts a macro-level approach linking sustain-
ability, innovation, and regional development. The importance of urban and
regional visions and policies reflects the necessity to mobilize the heteroge-
neous group of relevant local actors for sustainability transitions
(Essletzbichler, 2012). In this section, authors point also to the role of inter-
mediaries (organizations working between different social interests) in pro-
ducing outcomes that would not have been realized without their involvement
(Hodson & Marvin, 2010). This part illustrates possible regional develop-
ment trajectories that favor sustainable innovation and transition.
The first contribution of the book explores regional economic resilience as
an important feature of regions that are able to react and recover from eco-
nomic, social, and environmental crisis (Boschma, 2015; Fröhlich & Hassink,
2018). This is of particular interest because it allows to plan and organize
local resources in a way that can sustain multiple development trajectories
and to adapt to different types of shocks. A sustainable development is based
on the capacity to re-organize the status quo evolving from less sustainable to
more sustainable economic performance. The understanding of an analytical
framework that can give insights in this direction is particularly timing.
Stefania Oliva and Luciana Lazzeretti propose a theoretical contribution that
investigates the relation between regional resilience and sustainability.
Through a bibliometric analysis and a critical literature review, the authors
summarize the relevant literature developed in the last decades in order to
identify research strands and principal topics. In addition, they highlight
Introduction xv

under-researched themes and develop a research agenda for further studies.

What emerges from the theoretical analysis is the power of the multidisci-
plinary nature of resilience and sustainability. This can favor dialogue
between different disciplines, enlarge the domain of application, and benefit
from multiple and diverse perspectives. Studying resilience in the field of
sustainable transition can contribute to the emergence of the interconnections
of ecosystems, society, and economic activities.
Ivan De Noni, Andrea Ganzaroli, and Luigi Orsi focus on the idea that, by
supporting a more creative process oriented to develop new environmental
technologies, regions may facilitate a local application of these inventions
within the industrial portfolio of the region, and consequently strengthen
regional competitiveness and growth. Environmental innovation is receiving
increasing attention from scholars and policymakers as a key driver in the
development of a greener and more competitive economy. This study contrib-
utes to existing literature by investigating whether and to what extent green
invention and green collaboration strengthen the competitiveness of regions
and the significance of spatial proximity as a distinctive source of competitive
advantage. Empirical evidence is based on a longitudinal analysis of 232
European regions over the period from 2000 to 2013. Data are organized by
merging OECD RegPat, Cambridge Econometrics, and Eurostat databases.
Their main results confirm the positive influence of green invention intensity,
as well as intraregional green collaboration, on growth in regional competi-
tiveness, with significant implications for policymakers.
The other three contributions investigate the role of the intermediaries in
the sustainable transition. In particular, Gianluca Orsatti, Francesco Quatraro,
and Alessandra Scandura explore the contribution of academic inventors to
define and promote new green technological trajectories in local contexts.
This chapter investigates the association between region-level recombinant
capabilities and the generation of green technologies (GTs), together with
their interplay with the intensity of academic involvement in innovation
dynamics. The analysis focuses on Italian NUTS 3 regions, over the period
1998–2009. The main empirical evidence is that the local capacity to intro-
duce novel combinations is positively and strongly associated with the gen-
eration of GTs, while the involvement of academic inventors in local
innovation dynamics shows an interesting compensatory role when local con-
texts lack such capacity. This study contributes to the literature opening the
black box of green technologies and unveiling knowledge dynamics and
related innovation capabilities at the regional level. Their results bear inter-
esting policy implications for future regional development plans oriented to
promote research and innovation in the green domain.
Eleonora Di Maria, Valentina De Marchi, and Elena Bonel explore the role
of universities in supporting the development of sustainability-oriented spin-­
offs. In particular, they focus on environmental knowledge-intensive business
services (eKIBS) as peculiar spin-offs, who could exploit their interaction
with universities for stimulating the implementation of circular economy
practices in the region. KIBS are crucial actors because they can promote
sustainability practices within regional innovation systems. KIBS are the type
of intangible offering that uses and builds knowledge as primary component
xvi Introduction

of value creation process (European Commission, 2012; Hervas-Oliver,

Jackson, & Tomlinson, 2011; Lemus-Aguilar & Hidalgo, 2015). Based on
five case studies of spin-offs originated at the University of Padova (Italy),
the chapter suggests how universities support innovation in eKIBS, especially
providing access to scientific frontiers and to physical, human, and reputa-
tional resources. As a consequence, universities can be considered important
actors within a knowledge ecosystem able to support the sustainability transi-
tion of regions.
Marina Bertolini and Silvia Blasi investigate the role of the Distribution
System Operators (DSOs) in the electricity market, where they are increas-
ingly holding a position of paramount importance in fuelling the energy tran-
sition. The objective of their study is the Italian energy system. Energy
systems, and electricity systems in particular, have undergone radical trans-
formations in recent years, mainly due to the growing awareness of environ-
mental issues. The chapter aims at answering the following research questions:
(1) Which are the main characteristics of DSO in Italy? (2) Which are the
main factors that have led to the establishment of several DSOs in the same
territory? (3) Is there a link between the DSO number and the energy com-
munities in the same area? Their analysis suggests that some societal charac-
teristics (represented by the tendency to aggregate in cooperatives), surely
favored by territorial characteristics and needs, could accelerate the accom-
plishment of energy transition targets. Thus, regional specificities must be
taken into account when planning actions for sustaining regional energy
transitions.
The second part of the book is dedicated to the spatial dimension of sus-
tainable development. In particular clusters, industrial districts, and regions
are here considered as relevant units of analysis (meso-level analysis). In dif-
ferent spaces, actors interact differently and create a variety of opportunities
for sustainable value creation. This requires that social and entrepreneurial
initiatives be merged with respect to ecological, human, social, and manufac-
tured capital. Overall then, sustainable value creation and local economic
development within the wider context of sustainable development require
new entrepreneurial initiatives that focus on investing in the local environ-
ment, creating/strengthening local institutions, and employing people and
their resources. It is important to start reflecting on how to research on the
geography of sustainability, which is a very relevant yet understudied
concept.
The second part opens with an introduction to bioeconomy in general and
bioclusters in particular, offered by Frans Hermans. A bioeconomy can be
defined as an economy where the basic building blocks for materials, chemi-
cals, and energy are derived from renewable biological resources (McCormick
& Kautto, 2013). The bioeconomy has the potential to contribute to sustain-
able development by stimulating a shift away from fossil fuels, thereby com-
batting climate change and at the same time fostering innovations and regional
and agricultural development (McCormick & Kautto, 2013). Bioclusters are
expected to play a key role in the development of the bioeconomy (Zechendorf,
2011) and as a result, the promotion of bioclusters often features prominently
in the bioeconomy policies of many countries (Dietz, Börner, Förster, & Von
Introduction xvii

Braun, 2018). This chapter provides a theoretical view of bioclusters, which

ends with the identification of four different types of bioclusters and with the
development of some thoughts about their implications for supporting a sus-
tainable development at different scales and levels.
In the next chapter, Rowena Vnuk and Allan O’Connor see at industrial
clusters, industrial districts, and related sectoral organizations as intermedi-
ary organizations, and examine sustainability transitions in terms of multiple
contributions made by multiple actors seeking multiple outcomes within mul-
tiple industry sectors understood as dynamic systems. To achieve sustainable
competitiveness for client firms, partners, regions, and sectors, this chapter
proposes to adopt a multiple-level perspective, which necessarily asks for an
integration of multiple conceptual frameworks. The authors introduce a
model by which an intermediary organization at various geographical levels
may seek to create, validate, and consolidate intermediary functions before
taking a strong leadership in sustainability transitions, based on eight posi-
tional perspectives.
Iván G. Peyré Tartaruga and Fernanda Queiroz Sperotto provide a contri-
bution to the industrial cluster approach focusing on the role of inclusion in
processes of innovation and, consequently, in economic development. At the
basis of their arguments is the acknowledgement that we are living a techno-
logical revolution, which encompasses economic and societal aspects, by
means of new products, new jobs, and new lifestyles. Which is the role of
industrial clusters in soliciting social inclusion and environmental innova-
tion? The findings of the study indicate important contributions for the under-
standing and formulation of innovation policies at the cluster level.
Agglomerations help to bridge the gap between innovation paths and knowl-
edge bases, via networks of production of interdependent firms and strategic
partnerships and alliances with research institutes, universities, business ser-
vices, bridging agents (consultants), customers, and civil society. Therefore,
clusters appear as relevant units of analysis for pursuing sustainable develop-
ment objectives.
Marco Bellandi, María Jesús Ruiz Fuensanta, and Erica Santini investigate
place-based factors of environmental strengths and weaknesses, looking in
particular at industrial districts (IDs) as models of local production. Above
all, the authors study the capabilities of SMEs, embedded in social networks
of local communities, to assume environmental responsibility and reach envi-
ronmental performance, paralleling shared value strategies by large firms.
The authors collect a series of environmental performance indicators at the
local level, referred to the 116 main (capital) Italian cities at the provincial
(county) level (NUTS 3), of which 23 are the main urban centers of an
(important) Italian ID (according to the Istat identification). The chapter
offers a first attempt to map the environmental performance of local produc-
tion systems and leaves room for future research on the topic.
Finally, the second part of the book ends with the contribution of Natalia
Faraoni, Tommaso Ferraresi, and Sara Turchetti, which focuses on a value
chain approach to circular economy (CE) practices in the Tuscan fashion
industry. More specifically, the authors try to find out to what extent the
potential for environmental upgrading is channeled through the supply chain,
xviii Introduction

suggesting that the CE perspective is intrinsically connected to the global

manufacturing production and consumption. The study offers a multiple cor-
respondence analysis (MCA) using data stemming from a survey on 1247
Tuscan manufacturing firms about their initiatives of sustainability upgrad-
ing. Although in terms of fixed investments the fashion industry lags slightly
behind, the analysis shows that firms are getting more conscious about the
need for preserving resources and saving inputs. However, the paradigmatic
shift towards CE requires more profound changes in their business model.
Indeed, it confirms that the value chain is a relevant channel for environmen-
tal upgrading, albeit the activation of such a channel requires to have adopted
specific environmental innovations.
The third part of the book is dedicated to a micro-level approach, illustrat-
ing how to spur social entrepreneurship activities, which are based upon sus-
tainable business models centered in the creation of a shared value. The
creation of a shared value is a managerial concept introduced by Porter and
Kramer (2006, 2011), which opens up major strategic opportunities to create
competitive advantage, while driving the next wave of sustainable innovation,
productivity, and economic growth.
The topic is introduced by Fernando Alberti and Federica Belfanti, who
provide insights into the successful configuration of innovative creating
shared value (CSV) business strategies through the case of 21 Invest, an
Italian firm operating in the private equity market with a CSV approach.
Building on a comparative case study analysis of three of the most successful
investments of 21 Invest in Italy, this study makes a step forward in the under-
standing of how firms translate shared value agendas into actions. The authors
adopt the practical framework of Bockstette and Stamp (2011) that identifies
“The Ten Building Blocks of CSV.” Despite the differences, cross-case analy-
sis showed that it is possible to identify a pattern of best practices comple-
menting those already identified in “The Ten Building Blocks” framework
that companies can consider when designing and implementing a CSV strat-
egy. Both theoretical and practical implications of the findings for success-
fully translating shared value agendas into action are discussed.
Edoardo Bega, Luca Mongelli, Francesco Rullani, and Silvia Rita Sedita
investigate the main features of social entrepreneurship (Janssen, Bacq, &
Brouard, 2012), understanding the mechanisms through which Ashoka, the
largest worldwide support organization for social innovators and social entre-
preneurs, is able to create a fertile environment where to sustain the creation
and development of these businesses. This chapter aims at exploring geo-
graphical differences in the structure and characteristics of social initiatives.
After having analyzed the role of social entrepreneurship and social innova-
tion in the Global South and in the Global North, the authors focus on the
Ashoka network. Triangulating data from the Ashoka network and publica-
tions from academia (Yale and Columbia Universities) and international
institutions (such as the World Health Organization and the World Economic
Forum), the authors compare the two global areas in terms of alignment
between the most urgent needs of the countries therein and the actions of the
local Ashoka fellows. Results inform policymakers, social and business
actors on the importance of sustaining social innovation and social entrepre-
Introduction xix

neurship initiatives that align with the most pressing needs of the country,
especially in economies that belong to the so-called Global South.
Based on the assumption that capitalism needs to change direction, Silvia
Rita Sedita and Alan Trovò offer an analysis of social entrepreneurship aimed
at discovering the main determinants for social entrepreneurial activities in
Italy, studying the possible relationship between the concentration of social
enterprises and their determinants of action. In order to do that they adopt a
configuration approach, considering how economic and social factors impact
social entrepreneurship in Italian regions. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative
analysis (fsQCA) is applied to a sample of 294 Italian social enterprises oper-
ating in a variety of sectors. The configurational analysis shows how it is
possible that different regions follow heterogeneous trajectories in the devel-
opment of social entrepreneurship, and some of the identified antecedents are
present in all the configurations, such as the expenditure in research and
development. The findings inform policymakers, institutions, and politicians
on essential drivers for fostering social entrepreneurial activities in the Italian
context.
In the following chapter, Christian Richter Østergaard, Jacob Rubæk
Holm, Eric Iversen, Torben Schubert, Asgeir Skålholt, and Markku Sotarauta
argue that policy-making aiming to achieve environmentally sustainable tran-
sitions of the economy is in need of a solid empirical evidence base.
Conventional measurement concepts used for example by the EU based on
sector classifications deliver highly biased pictures. The authors propose
measures related to green skills and human capital, validating their assump-
tions by an analysis of four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway,
and Sweden. Results show that various versions of indicators based on green
skills help predicting whether firms introduce environmental innovations, and
this finding is robust across the four countries. Upon applying their measure-
ment concept at the regional level, they find that the different Nordic coun-
tries show rather distinct patterns in their geographical distributions of green
skills, which may have implications for firms’ capabilities to introduce envi-
ronmental innovations.
The third part ends with the contribution of Alessandro Barbiero, Silvia
Blasi, and Jan Marc Schwidtal, who move the discussion on the business
model transformation of electricity supply, which leaves room for the emer-
gence of end-user aggregators, as crucial element in the development of sus-
tainable electricity business ecosystems (BE). The chapter attempts to answer
the following research questions: what are the main changes in the electricity
BE due to the energy transition? What is the role of the energy aggregators
within the electricity BE? What are the main barriers that can hinder changes?
The empirical evidence comes from a comparative cross-country case study
analysis, which illustrates differences between four energy aggregators oper-
ating in four different European countries: United Kingdom, Germany,
Austria, and Portugal. The analysis reveals different stages of development of
energy aggregation depending mainly on the national context and on the legal
and technical barriers. These barriers are specifically linked to peculiarities of
electricity markets, particularly in relation to differences in retail, wholesale,
and ancillary services markets.
xx Introduction

Overall, the book configures as an original contribution to the sustainable

regional development research, and benefits from combining contributions
from scholars operating in different fields: planning, economic geography,
economics, and management. The multidisciplinary perspective is particu-
larly helpful when addressing issues that involve a variety of actors belonging
to different contexts. Moreover, the book offers a collection of a large and
unique portfolio of empirical studies, which cover a wide range of institu-
tional, political, and socio-economic environments. Some contributions focus
on studies at the European level, others are country specific. Evidence from
different geographical and institutional contexts provides direction for further
analysis on how to shape the transition towards a sustainable regional devel-
opment through social entrepreneurship and environmental technologies. The
authors adopt frameworks of analysis that are typical of the respective scien-
tific fields (e.g., case study analysis at the firm level; large database analysis
at the regional level). However, many authors try to look beyond the boundar-
ies of their discipline and address original research questions, to which they
provide an answer with equally original empirical tools. Each contribution
highlights the policy implications, and especially the implications in terms of
support to regional development processes. Overall, the variety of approaches
proposed is sustained by appropriate analytical tools, which deserve attention
and further development from researchers on this area. The volume paves the
way towards a systemic view of sustainable regional development, posing
special emphasis on the creation of a shared value.

Silvia Rita Sedita

Silvia Blasi

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 Part I
Linking Sustainability, Innovation
and Regional Development
 Unravelling the Sustainable
Resilient Region: Exploring
Regional Resilience in Sustainable
Transition
Stefania Oliva and Luciana Lazzeretti
Introduction
In recent decades, external shocks have become
more common leading to an increase of analyses
devoted to understanding the capacity of individu-
als, communities and regions to respond to nega-
tive events. In this scenario, the concept of
resilience has rapidly started to spread among
policymakers and academia, through different
schemes and definitions, that have tried to study
the topic and understand the ability of systems to
cope with external shocks (Campanella, 2006;
Martin, 2012; Martin & Sunley, 2015; Pendall,
Foster, & Cowell, 2010; Sedita, De Noni, &
Pilotti, 2017). In the last 10 years, this issue has
become one of the major topics in different disci-
plines and a watchword for several policies and
governments. The basic idea of these analyses
was to try to understand why some communities
and economies can positively respond and recover
to external shocks (Adger, 2000). The understand-
ing of such processes could contribute to identify
the characteristics of those subjects and systems
which better cope with disturbances.
Studies of resilience, on the one side, describe
it as an operational concept that implies a clear
and accurate definition but, on the other side,
S. Oliva (*) · L. Lazzeretti
Department of Economics and Management,
University of Florence, Florence, Italy
e-mail: stefania.oliva@unifi.it;
luciana.lazzeretti@unifi.it
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. R. Sedita, S. Blasi (eds.), Rethinking Clusters, Sustainable Development Goals Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61923-7_1
they identify resilience as a normative notion
that, for its nature, requires less strict definitions
(Baggio, Brown, & Hellebrandt, 2015). They
ascribe the popularity of the concept to its malle-
ability because it can assume different meanings
to different people and be interpreted in a broader
sense across disciplines (Brand & Jax, 2007).
Resilience is a “boundary object” able to adapt to
several viewpoints maintaining an identity across
them (Star & Griesemer, 1989).
Recent contributions have applied the notion to
study the responsiveness to external disturbances
where resilience refers to the adaptive capacity of
regions in overcoming adverse events, promoting
adaptation and transformability in response to the
challenges of a globalized scenario, such as eco-
nomic transformation (Sunley, Martin, & Tyler,
2017), climate change and sustainability transition
(Zhang & Li, 2018) and social inclusion (Sasaki,
2010). Many scholars have made efforts to develop
a theoretical framework for the resilience of cities
and regions (Leichenko, 2011; Martin & Sunley,
2015) addressing the topic with several issues
devoted to narrow the boundaries of definitions
and limit its fuzziness. To the question “what resil-
ience is”, scholars have quickly added the neces-
sity to specify “resilience to what”, “resilience of
who” and “for whom” (Carpenter, Walker,
Anderies, & Abel, 2001; Cretney, 2014; Cutter,
2016). Parallel to this rising interest, doubts have
been related to the most suitable spatial scale to
study resilience, to what ante-shock conditions
3
4 S. Oliva and L. Lazzeretti
could affect it and to the product of the resilient
process itself (Boschma, 2015). Other scholars
have wondered how to include institutional and
societal aspects in the debate of resilience arguing
that often the issue is not discussed enough despite
the importance of policy and community in estab-
lishing a proactive response when shocks occur
(Bristow & Healy, 2014).
Finally, several studies have contributed to
revise the concept of resilience. A share of these
has systematized definitions trying to underline
the high multidisciplinary (Modica & Reggiani,
2015). Others have been devoted to understand-
ing resilience applied to specific fields, such as
regional studies (Fröhlich & Hassink, 2018) and
economics (Rose, 2004), or have related the
notion to other popular concepts such as sustain-
ability (Zhang & Li, 2018).
Following this debate, the chapter wants to shed
light on the relationship between resilience and sus-
tainability in the field of regional studies. Through a
critical analysis of definitions and criticisms that
emerged in the last years’ literature, the chapter dis-
cusses how resilience may be integrated with the
view of the sustainable transition of regions.
The chapter is structured as follows. First, it
offers a literature review of regional resilience
research, conducted through a bibliometric anal-
ysis on Web of Science Core Collection (WOS).
Second, it moves to identify the roots and evolu-
tion of resilience’s definitions. Third, it discusses
the main criticisms on the approaches to resil-
ience. Forth, it points out how an integration of
the frameworks of resilience and sustainability
may help researchers to overcome gaps and criti-
cisms developing a comprehensive theory of
regional resilience for sustainable development.
Finally, the conclusions address the topic with
suggestions for future researches.
 he Rising Discussion About
T Concept
Regional Resilience
Over the last few years, the notion of resilience
has been widely introduced in management,
geography and regional studies to describe the
capacity of firms, environments and regions to
successfully overcome external shocks.
To identify the trend of the literature of resil-
ience, the terms “regional resilience” or “resilient
region” or “resilient regions” or “regional eco-
nomic resilience” have been searched within the
title, abstract and keywords of the contributions of
the database Web of Science Core Collection of
ISI Web of Science (WOS). The research allows
us to trace and collect 299 publications in the
period between 1993 and 2019 among scientific
articles, book chapters, editorial materials and
conference proceedings in the English language.
Figure 1 represents the trend of scientific pub-
lications from 1993 to 2019. It shows a rapid
increment starting from 2010, in parallel with the
period immediately following the global financial
crisis. This confirms the renewed interest of the
topic concerning studies of the ability of regions
and cities to cope with the economic crisis.
Table 1 shows the first 10 most cited articles
and the respective authors, years of publication,
journal, title and number of citations. The most
cited contribution is the seminal work of Simmie
and Martin (2010) who discuss the notion of
resilience with the theory of the adaptive cycle.
Among the most cited contributions, a large part
pertains to the study of economic geography and
regional science while a residual part affords
environmental and ecological issues, also related
to sustainability, as the contribution of Walker
et al. (2009).
Analyzing the main sources of publication
(Table 2), articles are distributed among a variety
of scientific journals. Cambridge Journal of
Regions Economy and Society (21 articles) is the
journal which counts the highest number of publi-
cations, followed by Sustainability and European
Planning Studies (both with 17 articles).
 xploring the Origin and Evolution
E
of Resilience as a Multidisciplinary
 he Origins of the Concept
T
of Resilience
One of the first problems of studying resilience
has certainly been to establish the boundaries
of its definition. Resilience, as a scientific con-
Unravelling the Sustainable Resilient Region: Exploring Regional Resilience in Sustainable Transition 5

60
53

50 48

41 41
40
34

30
23

20 17
14
10
10 6
2 2 3 3
1 1
0
1993 1999 2005 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Fig. 1 Total publications by year. Source: Web of Science, 2019

Table 1 Top 10 most cited articles on resilience

Authors Title Journal Year Citations
Simmie and The economic resilience of regions: towards an Cambridge Journal of 2010 464
Martin evolutionary approach Regions Economy and
Society
Martin Regional economic resilience, hysteresis and Journal of Economic 2012 419
recessionary shocks Geography
Rose and Liao Modeling regional economic resilience to Journal of Regional 2005 303
disasters: A computable general equilibrium Science
analysis of water service disruptions
Christopherson Regional resilience: theoretical and empirical Cambridge Journal of 2010 284
et al. perspectives Regions Economy and
Society
Martin and On the notion of regional economic resilience: Journal of Economic 2015 235
Sunley conceptualization and explanation Geography
Boschma Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Regional Studies 2015 221
Resilience
Hassink Regional resilience: a promising concept to explain Cambridge Journal of 2010 206
differences in regional economic adaptability? Regions Economy and
Society
Bristow Resilient regions: re-“place”ing regional Cambridge Journal of 2010 163
competitiveness Regions Economy and
Society
Welsh Resilience and responsibility: governing Geographical Journal 2014 160
uncertainty in a complex world
Walker et al. Resilience, Adaptability, and Transformability in Ecology and Society 2009 156
the Goulburn-Broken Catchment, Australia
Source: Authors’ elaboration from Web of Science, 2019
6 S. Oliva and L. Lazzeretti
Table 2 Journals and books with more than five publica-
tions on resilience
Source titles Records
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and 21
Society
Sustainability 17
European Planning Studies 17
Regional Studies 16
Annals of Regional Science 7 three main properties: (a) the amount of change
Papers in Regional Science 7 that systems can sustain remaining in the same
Journal of Economic Geography 6 function and structure; (b) the degree to which
Environment and Planning A—Economy and 5 the system is capable of self-organization; (c) the
Space
Source: Authors’ elaboration from Web of Science, 2019
cept, has origin in the physic of materials and
ecology and has been recently debated in the
socioeconomic sphere, particularly in regional
sciences and urban studies. This literature is
now quite extensive, but many studies consider
the researches of Stanley Crawford Holling
(1973, 1996, 2001) the origin of the modern
theory of resilience (Folke et al., 2002; Walker,
Holling, Carpenter, & Kinzig, 2004). Holling
wanted to understand the influence of the
diverse behaviours of natural ecosystems in
their resources’ management classifying such
behaviours according to proprieties of stability
and resilience. His studies given rise to incre-
mental literature of the topic (Perrings, 2006;
Gunderson & Holling, 2002). This strand of
the literature identified two different defini-
tions of resilience, namely “engineering resil-
ience” and “ecological resilience”. Engineering
resilience finds its root in physics and engi-
neering studies (Gordon, 1978; Pimm, 1984).
In engineering, resilience is the ability of a
structure to resist a sudden shock and to not
crack. The term has been used in the field of
materials science and it has been defined as a
property of a material. It expresses the extent
to which a material subjected to external stress
can return to its initial shape when the external
pressure is no longer applied. Engineering
resilience concerns the possibility for the sys-
tem to return to an existing equilibrium after
the occurrence of a shock and it can be mea-
sured by the speed required to go back to this
pre-shock equilibrium (Pimm, 1991).
Ecological resilience, indeed, addresses the
idea to move on new equilibria and it is measured
by the amount of the shock absorbed by the sys-
tem. Thus, ecological resilience is conceived as
the magnitude of disturbance that can be toler-
ated before a system moves into a different state
and set of controls (Holling, 1973, 1996). It has
degree which measures the ability of the system
to learn and adapt (Carpenter et al., 2001).
A breakthrough in studying resilience came
from the theory of socio-ecological systems
(SESs): systems including both human and bio-
physical subsystems (Gallopín, 1991). Theorizing
resilience in SESs constituted the starting point
for the creation of the “resilient thinking”
approach (Folke, 2006; Walker & Salt, 2006),
which moved the concept of resilience from
being considered as a simple feature of the sys-
tem to a more complex and systemic process. A
part of scholars of SESs founded in 1999, the
Resilience Alliance, an international and multi-
disciplinary network of resilience scholars guided
by Holling to advance studies and applications of
the concepts of resilience, adaptive capacity and
transformation of societies and ecosystems to
cope with change and support human wellbeing.
Resilient thinking aims at understanding the
world and its constant change. According to SESs
theory, shocks can be analysed through four vari-
ables: robustness, resilience, vulnerability and
adaptive capacity (Gallopín, 2006; Young et al.,
2006). Such variables are strongly connected but
their relationship is highly controversial. While
robustness is the ability of a system to resist dis-
turbances without changing structure or
dynamics, resilience is the ability to compete
­
with external disturbances. Vulnerability, instead,
occurs when robustness and resilience are not
able to allow the survival of the system without a
structural change. Thus, resilience is related to
vulnerability by the adaptive capacity that is the
ability of SESs both to cope with external shocks
and to improve functions and structure of the sys-
tem. In the field of SESs resilience is defined as:
Unravelling the Sustainable Resilient Region: Exploring Regional Resilience in Sustainable Transition 7

Table 3 Evolution of the notion of resilience in the study of engineering, ecological and socioecological systems
Author Context Definition Equilibrium
Gordon (1978) Physics The resilience of a material is the quality of being able to Return to a
store strain energy and deflect elastically under a load previous
without breaking or being deformed equilibrium
Pimm (1984) Engineering The speed with which a system returns to its original state Return to a
following a perturbation previous
equilibrium
Holling (2001) Ecological The resilience of the system, a measure of its vulnerability Possibilities for
systems to unexpected or unpredictable shocks multiple equilibria
Gunderson and Ecological The magnitude of disturbance that can be absorbed before Possibilities for
Holling (2002) systems the system changes its structure by changing the variables multiple equilibria
and processes that control behaviour
Source: Authors’ elaboration

“the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and
reorganize while undergoing change so as under-
standing the same function, structure, identity, and
feedbacks” (Walker et al., 2004, p. 1).
Table 3 summaries the founders’ contributions to
the notion of resilience.
 he Evolutionary Approaches
T definitions.
to Economic Resilience
Over the last few years, scholars have recognized
and consequently studied resilience as an impor-
tant factor of growth or decline of places and as a
fundamental approach to understanding the rela-
tionships between regional development and the
path of transformation. This emerging scenario
caused doubts about the usefulness of the con-
cept of resilience to explain the phenomena of
recovery from shocks but also trajectories of
urban and regional change. Engineering and eco-
logical resilience lack of any references to the
dynamism of local systems (Dawley, Pike, &
Tomaney, 2010). On the one hand, the engineer-
ing approach that emphasizes the return to a pre-
existing equilibrium does not recognize a
potential evolution of systems. It is comparable
to the neoclassical economics viewpoint charac-
terized by an optimal equilibrium, rationality of
economic agents and perfect function of market
mechanisms. On the other hand, despite ecologi-
cal resilience identifies the possibility of multiple
equilibria, it compares the evolution of systems
to the succession of several states of equilibria.
Resilience cannot be considered as a dichoto-
mous concept that involves the restoration of
states of existing equilibria or the generation of a
new. It is a complex process that can lead to a mix
of multiple states of change and continuity. Such
reflections lead scholars to theorize a new defini-
tion of resilience trying to address the theoretical
problems of engineering and ecological
Following an evolutionary perspective, a goal
is studying resilience in relation to the creation of
new trajectories and a key element is to under-
stand the adaptive capacity of the system as a
response to pressures. This is the ability of labour
forces, technology, institutions, communities and
policies to adapt to a change deriving from exter-
nal pressures.
A convincing theory of resilience requires to
explain how adaptive capacity develops in time
and this implies a shifting of the focus from the
characteristics of a resilient economy to how
these features adapt over time. The purpose is to
investigate the trajectories of change rather than
the stability factors and, at the same time, to
­identify the influence of structure, organization
and behaviours of the economic systems in creat-
ing resilience (Martin & Sunley, 2015).
Simmie and Martin (2010) argue that resil-
ience involves:
“the ability of the region’s industrial, technologi-
cal, labour force and institutional structures to
adapt to the changing competitive, technological
and market pressures and opportunities that con-
front its firms and workforce” (p. 30).
8 S. Oliva and L. Lazzeretti
According to this vision, resilience refers to the
adaptive capacity of the system and is related to
the ability of the system to reorganize and evolve
to minimize the impact of disturbances. This new
“adaptive resilience” involves the possibility of a
structural adjustment in response to shocks and
has been defined as “evolutionary resilience”. In
a later work, Martin (2012) defines adaptive resil-
ience as:
“the capacity of a regional economy to reconfigure,
that is adapt, its structure (firms, industries, tech-
nologies and institutions) so as to maintain an
acceptable growth path in output, employment and
wealth over time” (p. 10).
Thus, such adaptive capacity may refer to pro-
cesses of adaptation and adaptability (Grabher,
1993). The first involves the recombination of
assets historically accumulated in a region to fos-
ter the transformation of its economic base in
response to the shock. The second refers to the
ability of a region to introduce new resources in
the aftermath of a shock.
Both concepts can explain resilience and how
new trajectories have been developed over time
(Pike, Dawley, & Tomaney, 2010). Simmie
(2017) associates adaptation and adaptability to
the concept of replication and re-invention of
urban and regional economies. Replication per-
tains to the capacity of reproducing existing com-
ponents of the economic scenario replacing
existing declining industries with a modern ver-
sion. Re-invention involves the ability to continu-
ally reinvent new firms acquiring new knowledge
from external sources, such as national and global
networks. The attitude to promote the first or the
second direction can influence the response of
systems to exogenous shocks.
Adaptive resilience has been studied through
several different evolutive approaches. A suc-
cessful idea has its roots in Generalized
Darwinism and recognizes diversity and variety
as successful elements for the resilience of places.
As underlined by Martin (2012) the diversity of
the region’s economic structure may be a crucial
factor in influencing responsiveness to external
shocks. This is also connected to the debate con-
cerning the role of specialization and diversifica-
tion in affecting resilience. Despite literature
recognize the potential role of the related variety
of the industrial structure in positively influenc-
ing the resilience of a local production system
(Sedita et al., 2017), other studies suggest that a
regional response to a crisis is not always posi-
tively associated with relatedness but may involve
unrelated diversification strategies (Lazzeretti,
Oliva, & Innocenti, 2019). This suggests the
important connection existing between the con-
cept of adaptive resilience and the most suitable
form of industrial structure for promoting struc-
tural change and regional transformation.
Criticisms of the Notion
of Resilience
Alongside the increasing enthusiasm and confi-
dence in the possibility of alternative resilient
development, a general criticism started to take
hold. Even though in many fields the ecological
definition has been preferred to the engineering
one, the lack of a unique meaning of resilience
and its application to several disciplines exposes
the notion to a series of criticisms due to the
absence of a clear conceptual determination and
a drop in the theoretical validity of the concept
(Martin & Sunley, 2015). In the last few years,
the notion underwent a sudden sprawl of defini-
tions confusing more than clarifying the concep-
tual framework of resilience leading to define it
as a “fuzzy” concept.
Other criticisms come from the ontological
nature of resilience that pertains to ecology and
socio-ecology, evolutionary biology, economics
and psychology (Simmie, 2017). The ecological
nature of resilience makes difficult to apply the
resilience concept to economic and social sys-
tems because many are the differences in struc-
ture and configurations that characterize
socioeconomic organizations. While ecological
systems lack human action and intelligence, this
is crucial to respond to shocks in social systems.
The different ways in which policymakers
respond to crises influence decisively the resil-
ience of economic systems (Martin, 2012).
Urban economies have a social component able
to learn and change (Simmie & Martin, 2010).
Unravelling the Sustainable Resilient Region: Exploring Regional Resilience in Sustainable Transition
The ecological nature of resilience ignores the
role of institutions, policies and cultural and
social factors in contributing to resilience
(Swanstrom, 2008). The human component can
affect the trajectories of development of the
region. This aspect makes adaptation of regions
unpredictable and not necessarily subject to the
stages theorized by models as adaptive cycles.
Knowledge is a key component of economic
development. Thus, a valid theory in the expla-
nation of the evolution of the system should
consider both human actions and continuing
learning capacity. Finally, while ecological sys-
tems are characterized by long periods of con-
tinuing stability, regional and urban economies
are unsettled and often affected by the occur-
rence of external shocks which changed local
circumstances.
Some of the criticisms refer to the “neolib-
eral” attitude of resilience (MacKinnon &
Derickson, 2013) which involves the reaching of
a resilient development as a top-down strategy
and increases competition between territories.
The concept of resilience has quickly infiltrated
many areas of policy decision. Governments
define top-down strategies of resilience applying
the same recipe to treat the problems of a global-
ized world, without any interest for unique local-
isms. Moreover, it seems to emphasize the search
for continued growth and competitive advantages
as the solution to the problems of the contempo-
rary economic scenario.
Finally, despite positive reactions to shocks
have been widely discussed in the literature, poor
attention is paid on those cases that can be defined
as “unresilient spaces”, underling that a process
of “arrested dialectic” contribute to stasis in the
academic debate of resilience (Cooke, 2017).
Lower interest is in analysing cases of un-growth
and unchanged regions or places that have lived a
continuous unstopped decline after the occur-
rence of a shock. However, to understand the rea-
sons which made these places “unresilient” is as
well important as understanding the remarkable
resilience of successful cases. Such a vision can
be connected with the general positive attitude in
discussing the topic of resilience:
9
“thus academia is, not for the first time, trapped by
‘resilience’ in its own addiction to optimism rather
than a more balanced realism” (Cooke, 2017, p. 4).
 he Open Debate of Resilient
T
Regions: The Relationship
with Sustainability
 efining Sustainability Across
D
Disciplines: An Overview
The criticisms identified in the previous section
underline the necessity to rethink the notion of
resilience. A concept that can be useful to rediscuss
regional resilience is the concept of sustainability.
A framework who connects both approaches may
be useful to analyse the future challenges of
regional development. Even the research of Holling
and the team of Resilience Alliance (Ludwig,
Walker, & Holling, 1997) had combined the con-
cepts of resilience and sustainability and subse-
quent debates enlarged the vision of sustainability
discussing the “Holling sustainability” versus the
economic perspective (Harris, 2003).
The impossibility of an infinite economic
growth was announced in 1972 by the report of
the Club of Rome “The limits to Growth”, which
analysed the causes and consequences of the
accelerated growth characterizing the modern
world. According to their investigation, the Club
of Rome scholars concluded that, with the current
rates of population growth, industrialization and
pollution, the limits to the growth of our modern
economies would have been reached within the
next 100 years (Meadows, Meadows, Randers, &
Behrens, 1972). This would be due to the limits to
resources’ availability and the e­ xcessive weight of
the anthropogenic impact on our ecosystem. In
1987, the concept of sustainable development was
introduced by the World Environment and
Development Commission (WCED). The
Brundtland Report called for human ability:
“to make development sustainable to ensure that it
meets the needs of the present without compromis-
ing the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 16).
10
Since the publication of this report, the idea of
sustainable development has been adopted
increasingly as a guiding principle in the environ-
mental discourse, however, with different inter-
pretations. Further definitions have broadened
the concept without changing the infra and inter-
generational character of the original definition.
It is the idea of continuity in the future that
emphasizes the link between sustainability of
development and reduction of the stock of
resources. Mebratu (1998) groups the definitions
of sustainability and sustainable development
into three macro groups. The institutional version
considers the definitions promoted by interna-
tional organizations that deal globally with envi-
ronmental problems. The ideological version
refers to the definitions that have a common root
with other social movements, such as feminism,
Marxism, etc. Finally, the academic version col-
lects the definitions that have developed indepen-
dently within scientific disciplines, focusing in
particular on studies of sustainability in econom-
ics, ecology and sociology. Within this latest
macro-group, the concept of sustainable develop-
ment has developed through different definitions
within specific branches of literature.
In the field of economics and management
studies (Daly, 1990; Gladwin et al., 1995), the
definition of sustainable development has three
crucial elements that deal with the social, envi-
ronmental and ecological dimensions of the con-
cept. Despite the definitions have increased, such
dimensions have remained crucial for a large part
of the literature of sustainability. Even if the first
studies of sustainability define each compo-
nent—economic, social and environmental—dis-
tinctly (Goodland, 1995), recent studies recognize
an overlapping among these three dimensions.
They underline the importance of a holistic view
to organize the actions required for a global
approach to sustainability. Opposite to the views
of weak sustainability (Neumayer, 1999), accord-
ing to which built capital can replace or substitute
natural resources, the nested sustainable develop-
ment sees the economy dependent on society and
both dependent on the environment (Giddings,
Hopwood, & O’brien, 2002). This is very well
expressed by the vision of cities and regions as
S. Oliva and L. Lazzeretti
complex adaptive systems where a shock may
affect different levels of the system that are char-
acterized by cross-scale connections.
In the field of regional science and economic
geography, literature over the concept of sustain-
ability has evolved quickly. This emergent and
flourishing field relates sustainability to the idea
of technological transition where social and tech-
nical dimensions coevolve in a multilevel per-
spective (Shove & Walker, 2007). According to
this vision, sustainable transitions are defined as
a shift in sociotechnical configurations that
involves not only technologies but markets, poli-
cies and institutions (Coenen, Benneworth, &
Truffer, 2012). Moreover, transitions in technolo-
gies have a multilevel perspective where change
and stability coexist. At micro-level, change and
radical innovations occur in niches while, at
meso-level, technological regimes guide stability
through incremental improvements of existing
trajectories. The macro-level is represented by
the sociotechnical landscape where the actors
interact (Geels, 2002).
Part of the literature recognizes an important
role to scholars in economic geography to inves-
tigating sustainable transitions in regions focus-
ing on how specific characteristics of places can
influence the pathways to sustainability. However,
these studies have been poorly generalized.
Furthermore, it has not yet been defined specifi-
cally what the regime dynamics favour or inhibit
transactions (Hansen & Coenen, 2015).
 re Resilience and Sustainability
A
Interrelated?
Based on the discussion conducted so far, we
want to understand how the above-mentioned
debate on sustainability may be integrated into
the frameworks of resilience for developing a
more comprehensive theory of regional resilience
for sustainable development.
The economic field, in studying sustainable
development, has developed different definitions
in different branches. A crucial difference con-
cerns the notion of weak and nested sustainabil-
ity, underlined in the previous paragraph. Such
Unravelling the Sustainable Resilient Region: Exploring Regional Resilience in Sustainable Transition
distinction may be useful for enlarging the debate
concerning resilience and may help to discuss
some unsolved problems. Adopting a vision simi-
lar to that of nested sustainability may help resil-
ience to overcome a part of the criticisms to who
see the definition as too narrowed to its ecologi-
cal versus economic dimension. Indeed, regional
studies of resilience are generally extremely
focused on a single dimension of resilience. In
particular, the empirical studies concerning the
adaptive resilience of regions mostly refer to eco-
nomic crises and recessionary shocks. These
studies use employment or GDP (Cuadrado-­
Roura, Martin, & Rodríguez-Pose, 2016) to mea-
sure the resilience of regions while less attention
is paid to social, environmental and embedded
resources. However, natural shocks can have
strict repercussions on economic and social
dimensions. When a shock occurs, economically
vulnerable and marginal communities may be
less responsive (Leichenko, 2011). What should
count for policymakers is to integrate actions of
hazard mitigation with policies for economic
development and reduction of inequality.
Moreover, concerning the natural environ-
ment, the effects and the evolutionary dynamics
of regional economic resilience in the face of
natural shocks are still an under-researched topic
(Oliva & Lazzeretti, 2017). This seems unrealis-
tic to the light of the increasing number of disas-
ters that affect cities and regions over the last few
years. Including the environmental sphere in the
investigation of economic resilience can lead to
opportunities for new and more resilient forms of
regional economic development (Hudson, 2010).
Second, the multilevel perspective adopted in
investigating sustainable transitions in regional
studies and economic geography may help adap-
tive resilience framework to describe resilience
as a process more than a characteristic of places.
According to the framework of adaptive resil-
ience, resilience may help to understand the evo-
lution of the system clarifying the attitude of
some regions to renew, reorganize and develop a
sustainable future in the long term (Lazzeretti &
Cooke, 2015). The multilevel perspective sug-
gests that a transition toward a more sustainable
regime involves both technological and institu-
11
tional coevolution and happens at different levels.
This perspective applied to the study of resilience
may help to understand different phases of the
response to external shocks, such as short-term
recovery and long-term reorganization and
renewal of regions (Martin, 2012).
Moreover, within this framework, multilevel
perspective and coevolution may lead toward a
deep understanding on how different regional
levels interact to respond to the shock and to
clearly distinguish how determinants of resil-
ience—among which innovative capacity, entre-
preneurial activity, institutional dimension or
industrial structure—influence ability of regions
to overcome shock through change and transfor-
mation. In particular, if the final goal of regional
resilience is structural change (Martin & Sunley,
2015), a focus on the local technological and
industrial structure may explain the formation of
niches and new industries based on emergent and
sustainable technologies. This is a common and
important element of both resilience and a transi-
tion toward a more sustainable regime. On the
one side, regional resilience framework discusses
the role of industrial structure and the need for
coexistence between both adaptation or adapt-
ability of regions to shocks (Hu & Hassink,
2017). This suggests that structural change is a
path-dependent process where the role of the
existing industrial structure may be crucial in the
development of new specializations and technol-
ogies through a branching process. On the other
side, studies of sustainable transitions of regions
emphasize the place-dependence of such pro-
cesses and should investigate the role of existing
industrial and technological patterns to explain
how niches and innovations emerge (Hansen &
Coenen, 2015).
However, also resilience may add something
new to the concept of sustainability. In the frame-
work of sustainable development, a goal for poli-
cymakers has been to build fail-safe regions,
promote technological efficiency and ensure the
sustainable transition. Resilience may introduce a
new perspective based on the idea of adaptability
to change, recognizing the constant pressures that
affect regional development. According to this
vision, resilience is one of the steps of the sustain-
12
ability of places and policymakers can benefit
from models based on resilience to achieve goals
related to sustainability (Zhao, Chapman, Randal,
& Howden-Chapman, 2013). It has been consid-
ered as the fourth dimension of sustainability, fol-
lowing economic, social and environmental
dimensions (Ahern, 2013). Going a step forward,
theory should move to the perspective of resilient
and sustainable development adopting the vision
of regions as complex systems, continually sub-
ject to change and uncertainty. Research of resil-
ience and sustainability are for sure interconnected,
but they have a specific difference. While sustain-
ability involves a certain degree of stability, pro-
moting the preservation of resources to guarantee
their use for future generations, resilience has
more to do with the ability to transform, change
and adapt.
Finally, sharing these two domains may con-
tribute to overcoming research gaps existing in
the literature of resilience. First, despite deter-
minants of regional resilience have largely been
theorized, few studies have tried to operational-
ize the factor influencing responsiveness of
regions (Holm & Østergaard, 2015). It is not
still clear what behaviours and attributes of sys-
tems can contribute to shaping resilience.
Modica and Reggiani (2015) identify six main
domains used in literature to evaluate resilience.
These range from some factors including an
individual dimension—socioeconomic and
financial characteristics of individuals—, inter-
nal aspects of the system—institutional capac-
ity, infrastructures and community—and other
related to technological innovations and the
Fig. 2 Framing
resilience in sustainable
development. Source:
Authors’ elaboration
S. Oliva and L. Lazzeretti
natural environment. Martin and Sunley (2015)
recognize a fundamental role in agency and
decision-making processes to increase the abil-
ity of economic systems to resist and recover
from shocks. Bristow and Healy (2014) empha-
size the role of policies in proactively respond-
ing to a crisis. A share of studies of resilience in
social sciences focalizes on the role of commu-
nities to foster resilience (Yamamura, 2010).
The view of sustainable development may con-
tribute to adding a social dimension to resil-
ience, investigating the role of actors and
communities in affecting regional resilience.
However, it may also emphasize how agency
and behaviours can contribute to the sustainable
transition of regions. Communities’ resilience
may become an important indicator of sustain-
ability considering that social, ecological and
economic resilience are related (Adger, 2000;
Magis, 2010). Following this approach, it is
important to note that environmental changes
have an impact on resource-dependent commu-
nities as well as economic transformations, in
the form of technological transitions, which
may affect natural resources management.
Figure 2 proposes an integration of the frame-
work of resilience and sustainability. Considering
sustainable development as a guiding principle
for the policies and strategies of economic and
institutional actors, integration of the vision of
adaptive resilience, understood as the ability to
overcome shocks and promote change, and the
sustainable transition in a multilevel perspective
can lead to a structural change involving agents,
technologies and institutions of regions.
Unravelling the Sustainable Resilient Region: Exploring Regional Resilience in Sustainable Transition
Conclusions
The discussion so far conducted wanted to revise
the main topics related to regional resilience and
combine it with the framework of sustainable
development. Far from being considered exhaus-
tive, the analysis focused on the main theoretical
contributions in the study of the resilience of
regions. The analysis has tried to intercept the con-
nections between the different views of resilience
and highlighted criticisms. Finally, a proposal to
integrate the resilience approach with that of sus-
tainability has been discussed to overcome the
research gaps identified in the literature.
The discussion has tried to highlight the mul-
tiplicity of aspects of resilience suggesting that
its ontological background, both ecological and
evolutive, competes to the strength and weakness
of resilience. On the one side, as criticisms sug-
gest, these can lead to consider resilience as a
human disconnected and top-down strategy. On
the other side, resilience can help researchers in
understanding perturbations in modern econo-
mies. This scenario involves several forms of
shocks—environmental disasters, economic fluc-
tuation, social crisis and technological changes—
well suited in the socio-economic context. An
integration with sustainability literature may
increase the power of resilience as a tool for
studying processes of change and transition in
regional and local economies. Following a sus-
tainable approach, economic resilience may ben-
efit from a vision related to the community,
individuals and institutions that are increasingly
emerging as important determinants of resilience
(Adger, 2000).
What emerges from the theoretical analysis is
the power of the multidisciplinarity of resilience
and sustainability. This can favour dialogue
between different disciplines, enlarge the domain
of application and benefit from multiple and
diverse perspectives. Some useful insights come
from environmental studies at the regional and
urban level.
Studying resilience in the field of sustainable
transition can contribute to the emergence of the
interconnections of ecosystems, society and eco-
nomic activities. This put the relationship
13
between environmental, social and economic lev-
els in a double-effect process. Thus, the resilience
of ecosystems depends on human actions, but it
also represents a solution for economic shocks.
This is clear when studying processes of climate
change and natural disasters, where manmade
disasters reduced the potential for economic
recovery due to fewer possibilities of using local
resources. In this context, a central role is played
by institutions, collective actions and govern-
ments to build a conscious social resilience able
to minimize the impact of natural hazards and
foster social reorganization. This vision is well
synthesized in the concept of “strong sustainabil-
ity” who challenges the possibility of substitution
of different types of capital, such as environmen-
tal, economic and social capital. This point
requires future research in the domain of regional
development, particularly in the emerging litera-
ture of sustainable transitions, where solutions
are highly dependent on technology, but they
should not leave out resources’ management,
social determinants and the unpredictability of
the economic scenario.
Moreover, an integration between the frame-
work of resilience and sustainability sheds light
on some topics that regional policymakers should
take into account in promoting sustainable and
resilient development of regions.
First, the place-based approach of sustainable
transition pointed out the necessity to rethink the
role of local resources in shaping policies toward
sustainability and resilience. This is also recalled
by the critics of resilience who contest its neolib-
eral attitude and suggest for giving more impor-
tance to the endowment of environmental,
economic and cultural resources embedded in
regions. An approach toward this direction should
be useful also in identifying weaknesses of the
regional context and explain why some places are
more able to transform than others.
This reflection leads toward a second point.
Regional policymakers should also give more
emphasis to the role of the existing specializa-
tions, agglomerations of know-how and capabili-
ties in understanding how this may delineate new
economic and technological trajectories in the
view of sustainability. In this context, what is
14
important is to understand what elements of the
existing economic structure may constitute a
competitive advantage for the sustainable devel-
opment of regions.
Finally, prediction models have resulted in
being unable to anticipate both economic and
environmental shocks. It follows that the priority
of policymakers should be to provide new tools
to enhance the capacity of individuals, firms and
institutions to be less sensitive to shocks. In this
scenario, policymakers should be able to define
efficient mitigation strategies that make regions
less vulnerable to shocks. It follows that intro-
ducing the vision of sustainability also into risk
planning policies can lead to consider aspects
such as the irreproducibility of natural resources,
the need for an energy transaction or the chal-
lenges of climate change. These aspects are often
underestimated in favour of emergency and
recovery management policies that could be
avoided by implementing a continuous and tar-
geted prevention policy.
Acknowledgements This work benefits of a research
period at the Urban Research Plaza, at Osaka City
University, Japan and at the Oxford Brookes University,
Oxford, UK to deep the topic of regional and urban
resilience.
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 Green Invention as Leverage
for Economic Growth in Locally
Collaborative European Regions
Ivan De Noni, Andrea Ganzaroli, and Luigi Orsi
Introduction
There is increasing pressure to find feasible and
sustainable solutions to the environmental prob-
lem. The European Union has designed a specific
policy that works at different geographical levels
and integrates different policy instruments aiming
at transforming Europe in the geographic area
with the highest environmental standards in the
world by 2050. Thus, regions are increasingly
called to enact a transformative process involving
both people and firms. In relation to this, on the
one hand, regions need to stimulate a sensibilisa-
tion process able to change people’s daily behav-
iours, beliefs and culture. On the other, they
should also encourage and support firms to adopt
more sustainable environment-related technolo-
gies (env-techs) in their production processes to
reduce their environmental effect and face the
challenge of a circular economy. Thus, according
to the regional literature, environmental innova-
tion is currently considered one of the key drivers
of sustainable development and growth. This
I. De Noni (*)
Department of Economics and Management,
University of Padua, Padua, Italy
e-mail: ivan.denoni@unipd.it
A. Ganzaroli · L. Orsi
Department of Environmental Science and Policy,
University of Milan, Milan, Italy
e-mail: andrea.ganzaroli@unimi.it; luigi.orsi@unimi.it
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. R. Sedita, S. Blasi (eds.), Rethinking Clusters, Sustainable Development Goals Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61923-7_2
chapter focusses on the idea that, by supporting a
more creative process oriented to developing new
environmental technologies, regions may facili-
tate a local application of these inventions within
the industrial portfolio of the region and conse-
quently strengthen the regional competitiveness
and growth. In addition, the regional capacity to
boost green collaboration within and beyond the
region by increasing the synergies across univer-
sities, firms, suppliers, customers and institutions
should enhance the production of new green tech-
nologies and solutions. In fact, green collabora-
tion is expected to support a more effective and
faster production and application of green innova-
tions by accelerating the move to a more efficient
and sustainable regional ecosystem and positively
affecting regional development and growth.
The objective of this chapter is to investigate
whether and to what extent green invention and
green collaboration strengthen the competitive-
ness of regions and the significance of spatial
proximity as a distinctive source of competitive
advantage. To achieve this objective, we apply
panel regressions with time and regional effects
using generalised estimating equations on an
11-year dataset of 232 European regions. The
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) RegPat database is used
for measuring env-tech and collaborative net-
works. Cambridge Econometrics data are used to
operationalise our dependent variable—regional
competitiveness in terms of industry gross value-­
17
18
added (GVA) growth—and data from Eurostat
are further collected to define the control vari-
ables that are more widely assumed by the litera-
ture on innovation.
Our results confirm that environmental inno-
vation performance contributes to strengthening
the competitiveness of regions, while collabora-
tion for environmental-related innovation does
not seem to be significant per se. Nevertheless,
disentangling the latter, we observe the conflict-
ing findings of intraregional and interregional
collaboration. While the first positively contrib-
utes to regional development and growth, the sec-
ond has negative effects. As we shall see, these
results have significant implications in terms of
policymaking. First, they highlight that much of
the externalities generated by environmental
innovation are internalised at the regional level.
Spatial and social proximity strengthen innova-
tion and regional growth by improving the effi-
ciency of people and firms in sharing valuable
knowledge through collaboration and mutual
trust (De Noni, Ganzaroli, & Orsi, 2017; Sun &
Cao, 2015). Second, they suggest that environ-
mental innovation may widen the competitive
gap between ‘core’ regions and those that are lag-
ging behind (De Noni, Orsi, & Belussi, 2018).
The structure of the chapter is as follows: In
the next section, we review the literature and
build up our main theoretical arguments. This
section ends with our main hypotheses. Then, we
discuss the methodology and present our results.
The final section discusses the main results and
their relative implications, as well as delineating
some limitations and directions for further
research.
 ackground Literature and Theory
B of economic returns.
Building
Exploring the extent to which environmental
innovation may strengthen the competitive
advantage of regions requires developing a better
understanding of what environmental innovation
means and how the peculiarities characterising
this form of innovation interact with the factors
shaping regional competitiveness. The terms
I. De Noni et al.
environmental, green, sustainable and eco-­
innovation are used to characterise products, ser-
vices or processes that have the effect of reducing
or avoiding environmental harms (Beise and
Rennings, 2005; De Marchi, 2012; Kemp, 2010;
Liquete et al., 2015; Liu, Vedlitz, & Shi, 2014).
Therefore, it is the effect and not the content that
defines innovation as environmental. Even if
there are no substantial differences between inno-
vation and ‘green’ innovation, if not for the
effect, the literature has already highlighted a
number of specificities that make environmental
innovation unique compared with other forms of
innovation worth studying separately. It is well
known that environmental innovation is sub-
jected to the double externality problem (Ghisetti
& Rennings, 2014; Jaffe, Newell, & Stavins,
2005; Rennings, 2000). First, social costs associ-
ated with environmental issues exceed private
costs, and second, knowledge required for the
development of green technologies is character-
ised by non-excludability (Hall & Helmers,
2013). In other words, externalities of environ-
mental innovation create social value, which can
be shared but not entirely appropriated by the
innovator. Therefore, the incentives for firms to
invest in environmental innovation are even
weaker, while the importance of policy interven-
tion and collaboration is even stronger.
Second, environmental innovations are
inclined to be more worthy and scalable because
of the larger combinatorial potential of green
technologies, in view of their wider scope of
application, as compared to other technologies.
In this light, they are often pathbreaking and
high-impact innovations (Coenen, Moodysson,
& Martin, 2015; Haščič & Migotto, 2015).
Therefore, they have a high added value in terms
Although green technologies are widely rec-
ognised to produce positive externalities for both
businesses and the environment, some negative
issues should at least be recalled. Limitations
associated with green technologies include high
development and implementation costs (e.g. the
complexity of the restructuring of bulky energy
and transport infrastructure), high time consump-
tion, land use, lack of information and regulation,
Green Invention as Leverage for Economic Growth in Locally Collaborative European Regions
lack of educational programmes for increasing
environmental awareness, shortage of skilled
researchers and managers, unpredictable perfor-
mance impacts (some alternative fuels have been
shown not to reduce toxic emissions; savings
generated by going green are often less than
expected) and negative environmental externali-
ties (renewable energy requires storage in batter-
ies, which are polluting and difficult to dispose
of). To summarise, its specificities and multidis-
ciplinary nature, as well as its positive effects on
firms and society, make green invention able to
specifically affect the competitiveness of regions
and worth in-depth investigation to an even
greater extent than other types of invention.
 reen Invention and Regional
G vation further leads to new markets, as well as
Competitiveness
A recent work by Todtling et al. (2019, p. 2)
invokes ‘the notion of green regional develop-
ment to encompass both the production of green
solutions and their application to solve concrete
environmental challenges’. In so doing, the
authors distinguish two dimensions of green
regional development—the production (supply)
side and the application (demand) side of new
env-tech and solutions. Both production and
application of green technologies by firms
embedded in a region can support regional devel-
opment and growth. Application is expected to
support both firms’ productivity and environmen-
tal performance. Production enables firms to
directly apply and adopt their developed solu-
tions or sell them in the local and global markets.
In this framework, although regions may import
green technologies and solutions developed in
other regions or countries, green invention inten-
sity may be a critical driver of regional competi-
tiveness. There are several reasons why this could
be the case. The development of new green tech-
nologies and solutions is expected to produce
twofold benefits in terms of the productivity and
efficiency of firms, as well as solutions to envi-
ronmental problems. In this framework, the pro-
ductivity of firms’ benefits by developing and
implementing green innovations because in
19
doing so, firms can save raw materials, improve
waste disposal, limit polluting emissions and
reduce energy consumption. The attempt to iden-
tify and introduce new green solutions empowers
firms to improve their products and production
processes to make them more sustainable. The
introduction of green solutions can produce
advantages for both firm and supply value chains,
driving a transformation process that focusses on
the concept of a circular economy. Hottenrott,
Rexhäuser, and Veugelers (2016) argue that the
positive linkage between green technology adop-
tion and productivity growth relies on firms’
capacity to adapt their organisational structures.
Firms’ ability to design new green technologies
and processes directly reflect waste and con-
sumption costs reduction. However, green inno-
internationalisation and diversification opportu-
nities because of the multidisciplinary nature and
scalability of green technologies and solutions.
The improvement of environmental performance
also enhances the social firm’s reputation.
Environmental responsibility increases the
chance for access to greater financial resources
and incentives, the capacity to attract human cap-
ital to invest in and local and global market
opportunities, as well as collaboration and net-
working opportunities with customers, suppliers
and institutions. The social impact of green inno-
vation positively affects the relationship with
stakeholders. The positive effects of social
responsibility on the finance and economic per-
formance of firms have been widely argued in the
literature. Given the factors contributing the most
regional competitiveness and those required to
create environmental innovation, we expect that
the development of environmental innovation at
the regional level may further strengthen the
capacity of regions to leverage those resources
with positive effects for their competitiveness
(Pujari, 2006).
Studies have already focussed on the relation-
ship between green innovation and environmen-
tal productivity (measured as value added [VA]
per unit of emissions) (Cainelli, Mazzanti, &
Zoboli, 2013; Ghisetti & Quatraro, 2017).
Dettori, Marrocu, and Paci (2012) and Paci and
20
Marrocu (2013) have shown the positive effects
of overall innovation on regional productivity
growth. However, few studies have looked at the
effect of green innovation on regional perfor-
mance in terms of productivity growth.
All the arguments outlined above drive the
point that green invention can support regional
development and growth. Therefore, the follow-
ing hypothesis should hold:
H1: The more a region produces green invention,
the greater its competitive advantage.
 reen Collaboration and Regional
G of green technologies in the formation of collab-
Competitiveness
The literature on the topic has widely argued the
complex and multidisciplinary nature of environ-
mental innovation (Andersen, 1999, 2002;
Cainelli, De Marchi, & Grandinetti, 2015; De
Marchi, 2012; Andersen and Foxon, 2009;
Roscoe et al., 2016). On the one hand, environ-
mental innovation is complex since it requires a
combination of highly heterogeneous compe-
tences (Zeppini & van den Bergh, 2011). A typi-
cal example is the electric car. Reducing the
environmental impact of cars through the intro-
duction of the electric car is not sufficient to
develop small and efficient batteries; it is also
necessary to organise a widespread and efficient
recharging infrastructure and adopt a clean
method of energy production. On the other hand,
environmental innovation is multidisciplinary
since the large scope of green technologies is
common to a wide range of basic, applied and
engineering fields and related sectors. For
instance, the development of smart grids needs to
integrate competence related to the fields of ICT,
electronic and mechanical engineering, statistics
and physics.
Because of the complex and multidisciplinary
nature of green innovation, it is difficult for firms
to have sufficient knowledge of all these potential
technologies in house. Firms need to expand
beyond firm boundaries by involving external
partners in their green research and innovation
activities. The collaborative dimension of knowl-
I. De Noni et al.
edge production has been shown to be specifi-
cally important in the case of highly complex and
multidisciplinary knowledge (Dornbusch &
Neuhäusler, 2015). These arguments sustain the
fact that green inventions require, on the one
hand, intensive exchanges of scientific and tech-
nical knowledge and expertise, as well as com-
plementary assets from various sectors and/or
disciplines, and on the other, complex interac-
tions among various complementary users from
firms, universities and specialised research enti-
ties and organisations, both globally and domes-
tically (Lubango, 2020).
Although few studies have examined the role
oration networks and their evolution, this ten-
dency has recently increased. From this
perspective, Orsatti, Quatraro, and Pezzoni
(2020) argue that team ‘recombinant creation’
capabilities have a positive effect on the probabil-
ity of generating green technologies. Todtling,
Trippl and Frangenheim (2019) further explore
the extent to which collaboration enables local
firms to overcome the local barriers that affect the
development of new green technologies and solu-
tions, such as lock-in assets in old economic
activities, institutional inertia, resistance from
dominant players in industry and thinness of
regional innovation systems. Zeppini and van den
Bergh (2011) investigate the collaboration
between green technological domains and non-­
green ones. The authors outline a possible role of
collaboration in supporting the generation of new
environment-related solutions through hybridisa-
tion. In addition, Quatraro and Scandura (2019)
discuss the value of collaboration with universi-
ties to promote green innovation. From their per-
spective, academic inventors can better support a
recombination process across different and not
necessarily related technological domains
(Quatraro & Scandura, 2019). In contrast, green
inter-organisational collaboration is also stimu-
lated in response to stringent environmental regu-
lation (Orsatti et al., 2020), supply- and
demand-oriented policies and the availability of
public funding (Fabrizi, Guarini, & Meliciani,
2018). Melander (2017) underlines the role of
supply chain collaboration. She claims that green
Green Invention as Leverage for Economic Growth in Locally Collaborative European Regions
innovations depend extensively on collaborating
with customers and suppliers.
Finally, Santoalha and Boschma (2019) reveal
regions’ ability to diversify in green activities,
depending on relatedness across technological
and industrial fields in the region. Relatedness is
known to be one of the main factors supporting
collaboration since it enables players to share and
transfer knowledge by avoiding lock-in situations
due to excessive similarity and redundant knowl-
edge, as well as excessive diversity and a lack of
linkages across parties. All these arguments
introduce our second hypothesis:
H2: The more extensive the green collaboration
capacity of a region, the greater its competi-
tive advantage.
A large part of the regional innovation litera-
ture stresses the relevance of spatial issues.
Several studies have contributed to the local–
global debate by exploring the spatial effect of
collaborative innovation. Extensive attention
has been devoted to investigating the effect of
intra- and interregional collaboration (De Noni
et al., 2017; Sun & Cao, 2015), as well as the
role played by global innovation networks
(Chaminade & Plechero, 2015). On the one
hand, spatial proximity can support the advan-
tages of strong ties, in terms of trustful relation-
ships, knowledge transfer and sharing,
collaboration opportunities and knowledge
spillover. In addition, it has been argued that
other dimensions of proximity (cognitive, cul-
tural, social, organisational, institutional) play a
critical role in supporting collaboration by mod-
erating the negative effect of spatial distance
(Boschma, 2005). This means regions can
extend their collaborative networks outside the
region at the national and global levels by
exploiting other forms of proximity on different
mechanisms of control (in spite of trust). On the
other hand, distant collaborations are supposed
to foster access to more differentiated knowl-
edge bases, increasing the recombinant poten-
tial of firms and regions for more radical and
breakthrough innovations.
21
According to the literature on spatial agglom-
eration, clusters and regions are the most impor-
tant loci of innovation; they are able to maintain
high levels of local buzz and collaboration
because of the interdependence between different
forms of proximity. However, regional clusters
able to create global linkages show higher levels
of growth and dynamism (Bathelt, Malmberg, &
Maskell, 2004). In addition, regions have become
knowledge hubs in global innovation networks
(Gertler & Levitte, 2005). In other words, the
local and global have been suspected to be com-
plementary. Since a similar trend may be fore-
casted for green technologies and clusters, this
chapter further disentangles the local, national
and international green collaboration capacity of
regions to stimulate a better understanding of the
relationship between spatial features of green
collaboration and regional competitiveness.
Methodology
Setting and Data
The interest of policymakers in the development
and diffusion of env-tech is motivated by their
potential to render environmental policies more
effective and cost-efficient. Some governments
are also motivated by the goal of creating new
products, business opportunities and markets,
thereby accelerating the transition to ‘green’
growth (Haščič & Migotto, 2015). Thus, the main
aim of this research is to explore the role of green
invention and green collaboration in enhancing
the competitiveness of European regions. First,
we have to define green invention. For these rea-
sons, patent data are best suited for identifying
technologies specifically related to the environ-
ment. This identification was conducted through
a search based on the Cooperative Patent
Classification (CPC). The CPC system is an
extension of the International Patent Classification
(IPC) provided by the World Intellectual Patent
Office (WIPO), and it has over 200,000 technol-
ogy classes. CPC, introduced in 2013, is the
result of a partnership between the European
Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent
 22 I. De Noni et al.

Distribution of Eco-patents and Eco-patents collaboration

14000

12000

10000
Number of env-techs

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Years
Number of env-techs Number of individual env-techs Number of coinvented env-techs

Fig. 1 Distribution of environment-related technologies (env-techs) and env-tech collaboration in Europe over time

and Trademark Office (USPTO) in their mutual overall patenting activity in Europe, but the
effort to develop a common, internationally com- importance of environment-related patents and
patible classification scheme for technical docu- env-tech collaboration has been increasing over
ments, particularly patent publications (Haščič & the years (see Fig. 1).
Migotto, 2015). Consequently, patent data allow Due to the lack of data related to control vari-
specific ‘environmental’ technologies to be rec- ables and the operationalisation of the dependent
ognised. The search strategies presented in this variable, our final sample involves 232 (starting
chapter rely on the CPCY02 classes as much as from 284) regions in 29 countries (European
possible. This is because the Y02 scheme allows Union plus Norway). The Nomenclature of
selected climate change mitigation technologies Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2 is used to
to be identified even by non-specialists. Second, define the regional level. Furthermore, data from
env-tech collaboration is defined as a collabora- Eurostat have been collected to define control vari-
tive network of inventors involved in the creation ables, such as research and development (R&D)
of env-tech and measured through co-patenting expenditures or human capital. Finally, data from
activities by using data about patents granted by Cambridge Econometrics are used to operation-
the EPO and relative inventors per year and alise our dependent variable—regional competi-
region, as provided by the OECD RegPat1 data- tiveness. Cambridge Econometrics maintains the
base (release version February 20162). Patents in European Regional Database. It provides a com-
env-tech represent only a small portion of the plete and consistent historical time series of data
for the period 1980–2015. With regional (NUTS 2
1
The OECD REGPAT database presents patent data that and 3) and sectoral disaggregation, it offers a
have been linked to regions according to the addresses of unique database relevant to academic, policy and
the applicants and inventors. The data have been ‘region-
trend analysis. The final panel dataset covers the
alised’ at a very detailed level so that more than 2000
regions are covered across OECD countries. period from 2000 to 2013. Therefore, because of
2
Regional Patent Data provided by OECD RegPat were these variables’ structure, the number of time
updated at the end of 2011. series in the panel dataset is limited to T = 11.
Green Invention as Leverage for Economic Growth in Locally Collaborative European Regions
Variables
Dependent Variable
Regional industry GVA growth. GVA is an indi-
cator of the economic activity and the value of
production of a country or a region. It reflects the
total value of all goods and services produced
less the value of goods and services used for
intermediate consumption in their production.
The term ‘value added’ (VA) explains the
improvements a region gives its products or ser-
vices before offering them on the local or interna-
tional markets. VA can be considered a mark-up
added by the producers of a region to enhance the
value of regional products and services. VA is the
difference between the price of products and ser-
vices and the cost of producing them. The higher
the mark-up is, the greater the ability of produc-
ers in a region to transform external inputs into
highly competitive products and services using
their capabilities and competences. For this rea-
son, the regional industry GVA growth is the
most suitable variable to understand the increase
of competitiveness of regions. To operationalise
our dependent variable, we used the industry
GVA provided by Cambridge Econometrics,
mainly because technological innovations have a
direct impact on the industrial sector (Antonioli,
Borghesi, & Mazzanti, 2016). We calculated the
growth of GVA as a measure of regional competi-
tiveness as the compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) in a 3-year moving time window to cap-
ture short/medium-term trends starting from the
year 2001. Thus, the first 3-year moving window
is related to the period 2001–2003, the second to
2002–2004 and the last to 2011–2013. We also
used a 5-year moving time window to test the
robustness of our findings in a different period,
but the results were qualitatively similar.
Exploratory Variables
Env-tech diffusion. We used the fractionalised
number of environmental-related patents gener-
ated in a region, calculated as the number of env-­
techs weighted by the number of inventors in the
same region as a proxy of the regional capacity to
produce new technological knowledge related to
green and clean technologies. The higher this
23
capacity is, the higher the ability of a region to
create new ‘clean products’ with higher mark-ups
or new and efficient processes to reduce energy
costs, waste and pollution should be. To measure
this variable, we used the CPC. Specifically, we
used the ‘CPCY02’ scheme, which contains sev-
eral sets of env-techs, including those directed at
the following: (a) the traditional domains of envi-
ronmental management (air and water pollution,
waste disposal, etc.); (b) adaptation to water scar-
city; (c) addressing biodiversity threats; and (d)
mitigating climate change (energy, greenhouse
gases, transport, buildings). These sets of env-­
techs are directed at four major environmental
policy objectives—the mitigation of human
health impacts of environmental pollution,
addressing water scarcity, fostering ecosystem
health and climate change mitigation. Finally, the
fractionalised number of environment-related
patents per region r and year t are counted as the
sum of inventors’ shares weighted for the regional
share, as follows:
Number of green patentsr, t = ∑∑Invshare × Re gshare ,
r, t i
(1)
where Invshare is the share that inventor i is
involved in the environment-related patent cre-
ation, while Regshare is the regional share if inven-
tor i is registered in different regions3 (De Noni
et al., 2017, 2018).
Env-tech collaboration propensity. In the pat-
enting process, the number of collaborative links
among inventors within and across regions is a
proxy for regional connectivity capacity.
Specifically, since technological flows among
firms and inventors are favoured by spatial and
social proximity (Sun, 2016), we distinguished
three different variables, which are as follows:
3
Reg_share and Inv_share are directly provided by the
RegPat database. Reg_share is less than 1 if the inventor
has multiple address registrations due to the mobility
across regions. Inv_share is less than 1 when the patent is
co-invented. If a patent application has more than one
inventor, it is equally fractionalized based on the number
of inventors.
24
1. Env-tech local collaboration propensity as the
number of env-techs involving more inventors
within the same European region divided by
the total number of regional env-techs.
Nooteboom (2000) and De Noni et al. (2017)
suggest that high levels of local collaborations
can support knowledge flows between inven-
tors because of spatial, social and cultural
proximity, which increases collaborative
opportunities, facilitates interactions among
actors and enhances organisational absorptive
capacity;
2. Env-tech national collaboration propensity as
the number of env-techs involving more inven-
tors from different regions but within the same
European country divided by the total number
of regional env-techs. For the local collabora-
tion, we have a slight increase of spatial, social
and cultural distance among inventors and
inventors’ organisations that could lead to
explorations in related technological segments
(Makri, Hitt, & Lane, 2010); and.
3. Env-tech international collaboration propen-
sity as the number of env-techs involving more
inventors from different regions and different
European countries divided by the total number
of regional env-techs. In this case, we reach the
maximum level of distance among inventors
and inventors’ organisations. Thus, the poten-
tial absorptive capacity of organisations should
be less strong than in the case of local collabo-
ration with higher levels of spatial, social and
cultural proximity. In contrast, a high increase
of the distance between inventors and organisa-
tions should stimulate combination and explo-
ration in unrelated technological segments.
This point was adapted from Ganzaroli, De
Noni, Orsi, and Belussi (2016), who mainly
suggest that close proximity should support
more exploitative inventions, while more
relaxed levels of proximity should strengthen
explorative inventions.
Both types of green inventions (exploitative
and explorative) could participate in increasing
the range of green products and technologies, and
therefore, increase the ability of regions to gener-
I. De Noni et al.
ate value for their economy and enhance their
competitiveness.
Control Variables
GVA. We used the level of industry GVA at time
t − 1 of a region as control for the VA CAGR
because higher starting levels of VA may neg-
atively influence the regional ability to con-
tinuously increase the growth in the following
periods.
R&D expenditures. R&D intensity is expected to
have a positive effect on the productivity and
competitiveness of regions and countries
because of the positive relationship existing
between technological input and output
(Castaldi, Frenken, & Los, 2015; Gilsing,
Nooteboom, Vanhaverbeke, Duysters, & van
den Oord, 2008). We operationalised R&D
expenditures as gross domestic expenditure on
R&D as a percentage of gross domestic prod-
uct. It is an indicator of the capacity to invest
in the creation and production of new knowl-
edge at the EU, national and regional levels.
Human capital. Since the attitude of a region to
produce, innovate and compete may depend
on the average level of human capital within
the local economy (Lee, Florida, & Gates,
2010), we used tertiary educational attainment
as a proxy for human capital. The higher the
educational level, the higher the potentiality of
a region to generate new knowledge, produce
more and compete in an effective way. This
indicator, provided by Eurostat, is specifically
based on the EU Labour Force Survey. It is
defined as the percentage of the population
aged 25–64 who have successfully completed
tertiary studies.
Population density. Externalities related to the
urbanisation processes are proxied by popula-
tion density (Mameli, Iammarino, & Boschma,
2012). Generally, urbanisation is positively cor-
related with the presence of industry research
laboratories, schools, associations and other
knowledge-generating organisations (Frenken,
Van Oort, & Verburg, 2007). Thus, urban econ-
omies may better support manufacturing pro-
ductivity than non-­urban economies do.
Green Invention as Leverage for Economic Growth in Locally Collaborative European Regions 25

Employment rate. Employment rates are defined
as a measure of the extent to which available
labour resources (people available to work)
are being used. They are calculated as the ratio
of the employed to the working age popula-
tion. Despite the potential established through
human capital, the regional capability to pro-
duce and compete also depends on the
employees’ skills and abilities, in particular
their areas of competence and their creativity.
We expect that a higher rate of employment
should lead to higher productivity
performances.
Year. Because we want to remove the influence of
time trends over the study period, we con-
trolled for the effect of all unobserved factors
due to macroeconomic trends, financial crises
and other factors that may affect the industry
productivity by including dummies for each
year of the study period into the model.
Regions. To capture time-invariant country-­
specific effects, we included dummies for
each region of the study in the model.
Model Estimation
Our dependent variable measures regional com-
petitiveness by computing the industry GVA
growth generated by a region in a given year.
Because the dependent variable—GVA growth—
can take on continuous values, a Gaussian speci-
fication is recommended. Thus, we used the
following formula:

VGA CAGR i ,t ( 0,1,2 )

= ai + β1 ( Eco technology diffusion i ,t −1 )
+ β 2 ( Eco technology local collaboration propensityi ,t −1 )
+ β 3 ( Eco technology national collaboration propensityi ,t −1 )
+ β 4 ( Eco technology international collaboration propensityi ,t −1 )
+ β 5 ( GVA i ,t −1 ) + β 6 ( R & D expendituresi ,t −1 ) + β 7 ( Human capitali ,t −1 )
+ β 7 ( Population density i ,t −1 ) + β 7 ( Employment rate i ,t −1 )
+ β 7 ( Year dummies ) + β 7 ( Region dummies ) + ε i ,t . (2)

We estimated the regression models using the
generalised estimating equations (GEEs) to con-
trol for heterogeneity at the regional level and the
existence of any systematic difference across
regions due to unobserved effects. This method-
ology allows for correlation in the dependent
variable across observations over time due to
repeated yearly measurements by estimating the
correlation structure of the error terms (Zeger &
Liang, 1986). A good starting point is to choose
the correlation structure that makes sense given
the nature of the data. Because these are repeated
measures data, an exchangeable or an autoregres-
sive (AR(1)) structure is a good choice. However,
this method is robust in the sense that using it
allows one to draw correct inferences from the
data even if the correlation model was incorrectly
specified.
We ran the model by imposing an exchange-
able correlation structure, which assumes that
each pair of observations in a group has the same
correlation across time. We also used an AR(1)
assuming the correlations between repeated mea-
surements of the dependent variable decline from
period to period, but we found the results to be
qualitatively similar to those reported in this
chapter. We report significance levels using
Huber–White robust standard errors to control
for any residual heteroscedasticity across panels.
We obtained our results using the ‘geepack’
package in R4 (version 3.5.0).
4
R is an open source software environment for statistical
computing and graphics.
26 I. De Noni et al.

Results due to space constraints but available upon

request) are relatively low under the cutoff point
Table 1 presents the results of descriptive statis- of 0.50 (O’Brien, 2007). The only exception is
tics for all the variables used in the regression the correlation between local collaboration pro-
models. The correlation values (not reported here pensity and national collaboration propensity.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics

Variables Mean St. dev. Min Max
Industry GVA growth 0.01 0.06 −0.47 0.58
Industry GVA 8088.78 8310.53 92.79 74,035.13
R&D expenditures 415.83 470.45 1.8 2876.6
Human capital 30.05 15 3 84.4
Population density 250.65 434.39 3.3 4289.3
Employment rate 65.12 8.07 37.8 80.9
Env-tech diffusion 11.39 24.12 0 288.3
Env-tech collaboration propensity 0.05 0.09 0 1
Env-tech local collaboration propensity 0.31 0.34 0 1
Env-tech national collaboration propensity 0.32 0.35 0 1
Env-tech international collaboration propensity 0.1 0.22 0 1

Fig. 2 Distribution of the number of environment-related technologies (env-techs) in European regions over the period
2000–2011
Another random document with
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 VII

De son côté, la mère de Paul avait résolu de venir causer à fond,

avec son fils, de ses inquiétudes et des rêves d’Annette, dont
Pauline avait cru devoir lui dire un mot.
La comtesse, ayant traversé le salon, trouva la porte du cabinet
de son fils entr’ouverte. Elle frappa, n’entendit aucune réponse,
souleva la portière, regarda, ne vit personne, entra.
Elle sonna.
— Monsieur est-il sorti ? demanda-t-elle au domestique qui
accourut.
— Je n’ai pas vu sortir Monsieur. Il est certainement dans la
maison.
Paul, n’ayant pas prévu sa sortie lorsqu’il avait reconduit Albert,
n’avait averti personne.
— C’est bien.
La bonne dame prit un livre, s’installa dans une chaise longue, le
dos au jour…, et s’endormit doucement, son livre ouvert sur ses
genoux, et ses lunettes sur son livre.
Elle crut rêver de querelles, de disputes.
Ses sommeils n’étaient jamais bons. Son pauvre cœur souffrait.
Les angoisses que donnent les maladies de cœur aggravaient ses
soucis, les lui rendaient plus noirs, empiraient de visions morbides
les tristes réalités.
Elle rêva que son fils et sa belle-fille se querellaient âprement. Ce
n’est pas la première fois qu’elle avait ce cauchemar. Et ce qui
l’effrayait le plus, c’était de voir le visage de Marie, en ces rêves,
prendre une expression affreuse, que rien ne peut dire. Cette image
ressemblait à la vraie figure de la jeune femme, — mais en mauvais.
On eût dit le masque d’une puissance surnaturellement
malfaisante… Sous cette apparence de visage humain, quelque
chose de démoniaque s’agitait, voulait, flambait, visible surtout par
les trous brillants et sombres des deux yeux.
Elle s’éveilla avec un cri étouffé… La nuit était donc venue ?…
Elle se réveillait dans l’obscurité. Seulement, la draperie qui
masquait l’ouverture de la porte était encadrée d’une ligne
lumineuse…
Eh ! non, grand Dieu ! elle ne rêvait plus… C’est bien réellement
qu’elle entendait deux voix en querelle, la chère voix de son fils,
grave, haute et ferme, — la voix de la jeune femme, contenue,
insinuante, souple, puis sèche et sifflante parfois… « Ah ! mon Dieu !
mon Dieu ! »
Elle voulut se lever. Elle ne put. Un engourdissement l’avait prise.
Elle dormait et rêvait sans doute ? Elle entendait pourtant ! Elle ne
parvenait pas à ouvrir les yeux… Rêvait-elle encore ? Oh ! non… Et
pourquoi ne pas écouter ? Rêve ou réalité, si elle allait apprendre le
secret du malheur pressenti, — si, avant de mourir, elle pouvait aider
son fils, — au moins d’une parole, — et le sauver !
C’était bien un réel dialogue qu’elle entendait, là, derrière cette
portière…
Paul disait :
— Je vous ai nommé l’autre jour, madame, l’ami dont l’affection
m’est plus chère que tout, après l’amour de ma mère. Eh bien ! cet
homme vous avait aimée avant même mon mariage ; il vous aime
encore — et, vous le savez !… et, malgré mes ordres, — vous
l’encouragez !
— Vous m’insultez tous les jours, répondait plaintivement la jeune
comtesse… A qui ferons-nous croire, comme vous le voulez, que
nous sommes heureux ? Comment voulez-vous que je soutienne
cette comédie, si le souvenir de vos duretés quotidiennes me met
même hors d’état de la jouer, cette comédie du bonheur… Votre
mère, Paul, devinera tout, à la fin !… A quoi bon, alors, ce supplice
de tous les jours ?
La pauvre mère avait enfin ouvert tout grands ses yeux. Non,
non ! elle ne rêvait pas ! Soulevée sur sa chaise longue, appuyée sur
un coude, la tête inclinée, elle buvait avidement les paroles fatales…
La voix de Marie poursuivait :
— Vous accusez toujours des intentions, ce qu’il y a de plus
insaisissable… Mais vous ne m’écoutez, vous ne m’interrogez
jamais…
Il y eut un silence. La voix de Paul ne répondait pas…
Il réfléchissait, il voulait entendre, il voulait juger définitivement,
apprendre à fond les projets de cette âme de ruse, pour les
déjouer… Il se rassemblait.
La pauvre mère écoutait, haletante. Son cœur battait à rompre.
Les silences lui étaient plus pénibles que les plus affreuses paroles,
parce qu’elle les interprétait. Elle croyait voir les visages des deux
malheureux. Et elle donnait à Rita la figure qu’elle lui voyait en
songe, — sa vraie figure peut-être !
La voix de Marie reprit :
— Même si je suis coupable, ma faute n’est pas telle que vous ne
puissiez, que vous ne deviez la pardonner, l’oublier, me rendre à
moi-même, me sauver enfin !… Pourquoi me fermer la voie du
rachat ? Dieu lui-même est plus indulgent… Oh ! si votre mère savait
tout !…
La vieille comtesse, à ce mot, sentit redoubler les battements de
son cœur.
— Croyez-vous, poursuivait Marie, que sa grande et belle âme
vous conseillerait la vengeance ? Car c’est de la vengeance, ne le
savez-vous pas ?
A ce moment, un valet entrait au salon. La mère de Paul entendit
un bruit de porte… puis, après un mot du valet, la voix de Paul :
— Nous dînerons ici, entendez-vous. Envoyez Baptiste porter
cette lettre à l’instant… Et fermez bien la porte en sortant… Qu’on
nous laisse. Ne revenez sous aucun prétexte.
Un long silence se fit. La comtesse d’Aiguebelle, anéantie, pleine
d’angoisses, attendait. Elle eut envie de profiter de ce moment pour
appeler, pour crier : « Assez ! Je suis là, et, quoi qu’il y ait,
réconciliez-vous, pardonnez-vous, par pitié pour ma vieillesse !… »
Mais à quoi bon ? Et puis, comme si elle eût continué à rêver, elle se
sentait impuissante et comme toute enveloppée d’entraves.
D’ailleurs, son bon fils avait pensé à elle. Elle était sûre de lui, il
ferait tout le possible, pour le mieux… Elle laissa retomber sa tête
sur le dossier de sa chaise longue.
Les deux interlocuteurs se taisaient toujours. Paul attendait. Il
espérait, en attendant ainsi, après avoir posé son terrible reproche,
qu’elle se découvrirait dans sa défense.
Il croyait la gêner plus par le silence qu’en lui fournissant
l’occasion de rebondir sur des répliques, qu’en lui présentant des
idées nouvelles où elle pourrait se rattraper. Maître de lui, ayant fait
son plan d’attaque et de bataille, il attendait donc.
On ne parlait plus. Pour la comtesse d’Aiguebelle, ce silence
devint effrayant. Dans un délire, elle crut être devenue sourde tout à
coup… Elle remua sa main sur l’appui de sa chaise longue et fut
contente d’avoir perçu le léger crissement de la soie. Mais alors,
sûre d’entendre, elle s’imagina être morte ! Et, de nouveau,
péniblement, se souleva un peu. Elle vivait… elle vivait
affreusement, pour entendre le malheur de ses enfants !
Si elle avait pu voir ce qui se passait dans le salon, oh ! si elle
avait pu voir, puisqu’ils ne parlaient plus !… Ce qu’elle aurait vu, —
c’était la jeune femme à genoux, devant Paul assis immobile… Elle
était venue en silence, bien doucement, s’agenouiller devant lui,
pour une suprême tentative de séduction… et, les mains jointes,
assise sur ses talons, dans les flots tournoyants de sa robe souple,
belle comme une sainte, — elle parlait bas…
Prête pour la soirée, la jeune comtesse était admirable dans sa
robe unie, qui flottait taillée tout d’une pièce comme une tunique, à
peine resserrée sur les hanches par la pression d’une large et lourde
ceinture d’argent. La souple soie de cette robe et les bouquets de
chrysanthèmes dont elle était brodée, étaient couleur améthyste.
Les bras étaient perdus dans le flot des manches bouffantes, en
velours de même nuance ; les hauts poignets de brocart retombaient
en pointe jusque sur ses doigts. Au bas de sa jupe courait une mince
bande de fourrure sombre, et, en haut, le décolletage carré encadrait
sa chair éclatante, d’une bordure d’améthystes pâles, incrustées…
Sur ses bandeaux qui voilaient ses joues, une chaînette d’argent
formant couronne suspendait, au milieu du front, un large fermoir
d’améthystes…
Et lui, pâle dans l’habit noir, en regardant cette femme inutilement
jeune et belle, il songeait confusément qu’elle était vêtue comme
une reine triste… Et il continuait à la regarder en silence, d’un œil
profond où il y avait la mort de tous les bonheurs.
La jeune femme parla longtemps à voix basse.
Que murmurait-elle ainsi ? La comtesse prêta l’oreille… La voix,
insensiblement, s’élevait :
— … Il faut me pardonner, Paul. Je ne suis pas encore une
femme, malgré mon âge. Je suis encore une enfant. Il faut me
prendre par la main, me conseiller, me montrer les beaux et droits
chemins, puisque vous croyez que je les ignore ; me rendre à la
vérité, si vous croyez que je l’ai perdue…
Et lui, en ce moment, pensait : « Elle ne répond pas à mon
accusation au sujet d’Albert… Elle ruse, — comme toujours, — mais
je la guette, et j’attends… »
Il n’attendit plus longtemps. Serrée contre ses genoux, se
relevant vers lui d’un mouvement serpentin, enlaçant, elle lui souriait
de tout son visage, de toute sa beauté désirable ; et elle trouva, pour
le tenter, ces paroles-ci :
— Sois mon confesseur… et sois mon amant !
Il se releva, en la poussant d’un mouvement si brusque qu’elle
faillit tomber à la renverse ; et tandis qu’elle restait à genoux devant
le fauteuil vide que venait de quitter Paul, lui, derrière elle, lui parlait :
 — Ah ! grondait-il, je savais bien ! Il y a toujours en elle, toujours,
dans toutes ses paroles comme dans son rire, quelque chose qui
sonne faux. — et qui me rappelle à moi-même… Il n’y a jamais qu’à
attendre… Mais je suis sur mes gardes et je vous reconnais toujours
à temps. Je revois toujours votre vrai visage !
Dans l’ombre où elle souffrait, allongée comme une morte, la
pauvre mère revit, grimaçante, entourée d’une lueur pâle, dans la
nuit, la tête de Marie, telle qu’elle la voyait si souvent en songe !
— Qu’ai-je dit ? répliqua la jeune femme, qu’ai-je fait, qui mérite
cela ?
— Rien, en vérité ! répondit Paul d’une voix ironique. Et voilà le
plus terrible ! C’est que vous ne démêlez pas ce qui est pervers en
vous. Pourtant vos réelles émotions vous servent elles-mêmes dans
votre œuvre de perfidie… Ne cherchez pas davantage à éviter ma
question. C’est inutile avec moi, ces fuites-là, vous le savez…
Revenons à notre sujet. Pourquoi avez-vous dit à Albert le secret de
notre mariage ?
Marie Déperrier se releva :
— Pour qu’il me pardonne, et, m’ayant pardonnée, pour qu’il
vous éclaire et qu’il me rende votre cœur. Et il s’y est employé en
broyant le sien !… O Paul, Paul, faites comme lui ! et surtout ne
m’accusez pas de l’avoir encouragé ! Il m’a aimée avant vous, je le
sais, je l’ai deviné ; il ne me l’aurait jamais dit ; mais vous savez,
vous, qu’il est incapable de vous trahir… et moi, moi, je ne l’ai jamais
encouragé.
— C’est l’encourager, dit Paul sèchement, que de vous montrer à
lui tout autre que vous n’êtes. C’est l’encourager que d’imiter devant
lui la résignation des victimes innocentes et même sublimes !
Elle fit dévier le coup :
— N’ai-je pas le droit d’avoir un ami ?
— Non, — si cet ami est le mien !
Elle affirma énergiquement :
 — Paul ! vous me demandez l’impossible ! l’impossible,
entendez-vous ! Vous me voulez honnête, droite et pure ! et sans
secours, sans appui ! C’est impossible !
Alors, il s’oublia :
— L’homme qui vous appelle Rita, dans ses lettres, où est-il ? Ne
vous écrit-il plus ?… Pourquoi pas celui-là ? Ah ! c’est juste, je me
souviens, il se plaignait de sa pauvreté. Mais un amant, ça n’a pas
besoin d’être riche ! Le mari est là !
Dans sa chaise longue, la comtesse d’Aiguebelle, immobile,
glacée, — cessa d’entendre parce qu’elle s’évanouit.
— Non, je n’ai pas d’amant ! répliquait Marie, — et c’est ce qui
rend criminelle votre conduite envers moi. Car, enfin, peut-on me
dire où est ma faute ?
Sans répondre, à cette question, il scanda :
— Vous n’avez pas d’amant, soit, mais il vous en faut un ! Votre
choix s’est fixé, et vous avez choisi justement celui que je ne veux
pas vous laisser prendre !… Que les autres se défendent !
Marie eut une finale révolte de tout son orgueil. Ses efforts de
soumission inutile l’avaient courbée jusqu’à terre. Comme une
flexible tige un instant ramenée au sol, elle se redressa moralement,
toute droite, à peine lâchée, dans la vérité de sa nature :
— Ah ! non, vous savez ! J’en ai assez, à la fin ! Votre pardon
viendrait, maintenant, que je n’en voudrais plus… Mais si je n’ai pas
de mari, alors, qui êtes-vous, — vous ? De quel droit me parlez-vous
de ce ton ?… Je ne vous connais pas…
Elle faillit dire : « mon bonhomme ! » mais ravala le mot.
— Ah ! j’ai un amant, dites-vous, ou je vais en avoir un ? Ce n’est
pas vrai, là ! Mais, comme je suis fille et libre, il serait, ma foi, temps
d’y penser… Ce qu’on s’embête dans cette maison, non, c’est à
mourir !… Ah ! j’ai un amant ?… Ne serait-ce pas vous plutôt qui
avez ou qui allez avoir une maîtresse…
Elle accentua d’un ton veule :
— La sœur de l’ami… votre Pauline !
 D’une voix sourde, Paul, indigné, comme au soir de son mariage,
et tout pâle, gronda :
— Enfin ! elle se montre ! La voilà, la vraie !… Fille ! Ah ! oui, fille !
Tu t’es nommée toi-même ! Tu te crois peut-être sincère. Mais qu’en
sais-je ? Et que sais-tu de toi-même ? Sais-tu où prendre ton vrai
désir dans le chaos de tes visions désordonnées ? Ce que tu veux
certainement, c’est la fortune, le moyen de tous les plaisirs… Quant
aux amants, — si tu n’avances pas, c’est que je te tiens enfermée
dans ma volonté. J’ai cloué toutes les portes. Tu ne m’échapperas
pas !
Il se rapprocha d’elle, les yeux ardents. Elle eut un peu peur. Un
délicieux frisson la secoua. Elle songeait machinalement : « Va
donc ! »
Et il allait :
— … Mais tu n’es pas coupable ! Tu m’as trompé sur ta personne
morale, sur la qualité de ton cœur… une marchandise ! Mais les faits
seuls, les preuves seules, rendent coupable. Et il n’y en a pas ! Aux
yeux des hommes, je serais désarmé. Mais le fond de toi-même, tu
sais si je le connais bien ! Tous les mauvais désirs s’y livrent bataille,
et c’est à qui sortira le premier. — Mais je suis là, je te dis ! On ne
passe pas !… Va, je te connais mieux que tu ne te connaîtras jamais
toi-même !
Froide, hautaine, elle répliqua :
— Avez-vous tout dit, à la fin ?
Mais il ne la lâchait que pour la reprendre avec une joie de fauve
qui a goûté le sang et qui s’en veut gorger… Hélas ! n’était-ce pas
encore, à son insu, une façon de la posséder, que de la tenir ainsi,
frémissante, dévoilée, et toute enveloppée de sa colère ? Il y
éprouvait une affreuse volupté. Il s’arrêta devant elle :
— Si j’avais pardonné, dans cette horrible nuit où ton mauvais
rire m’a révélé ta perversité, ah ! parlons-en ! je n’aurais été bientôt
qu’un mari comme tant d’autres, et plus tard… oh ! oh ! plus tard,
j’aurais cherché tous les matins, avec épouvante, si ma
ressemblance ne s’effaçait pas sur le visage de mes enfants !
 Elle grinça :
— Je vous dis que j’en ai assez… Pardonnez-moi… ou chassez-
moi !
Alors, il se mit à rire d’un rire effrayant, d’ironie implacable, — et,
dans la chambre voisine, la vieille mère qu’ils frappaient, sans le
savoir, de coups multipliés, s’éveilla, couverte d’une sueur froide…
Elle entendait ce rire, et suait une agonie.
Son fils criait :
— Te chasser ! C’est là ton triomphe ! Tu le sais bien, que je ne
peux pas te chasser, parce que ma mère — une sainte — doit
ignorer à jamais quel monstre est dans ma vie et la ronge !
La comtesse, dans l’ombre, s’était levée. Appuyée d’une main au
dossier de sa chaise, cherchant de l’autre un appui qu’elle ne
trouvait pas, elle voulait marcher, aller vers eux, se jeter entre eux,
faire cesser cette horrible lutte d’infâmes paroles sacrilèges. Ses
jambes défaillaient. Elle s’arrêta, frissonnante, avec des battements
terribles dans son cœur malade ; et, agonisante debout, elle fut
forcée d’écouter, et, malgré elle attentive, elle buvait sa mort.
— Sans elle, sans ma mère, entends-tu bien, disait Paul, sans
ma terreur de lui tout apprendre et d’ébranler sa vie, ah ! depuis
longtemps, de ces mains que voilà, je t’aurais étranglée, tuée ! Car
je te connais trop ! Tu es le serpent, la séduction perfide et sûre
d’elle-même… et désirée malgré tout !… Du sexe ? A peine ! ce qui
te rend facile tous les calculs avec ceux que tu troubles, dans
l’instant même où ils sont troublés. De cœur ? point. Douleur ou
plaisir des autres, c’est tout un pour toi ! Tu es de celles qui se
complaisent au désespoir et à la mort aussi bien qu’à la joie ou à la
vie ! Que leur importe ce qu’elles sentent ? Elles ne cherchent qu’à
sentir… Tu es la femme horrible, celle qui poursuit les triomphes de
sa beauté et de son orgueil, au mépris de l’honneur, de la famille et
de l’amour, et dont l’homme fort se détourne, — ou qu’il écrase !
Alors, elle se mit à sourire, du sourire qu’on voit sur les lèvres
des sphinx de pierre ; elle eut un imperceptible haussement
d’épaules, et à ce flot de paroles emportées, — où elle sentait bien
la rage amoureuse, l’éternel hommage, — elle opposa ces paroles,
dites d’un ton tranquille et narquois de coquetterie mondaine :
— Mais pardonnez-moi donc, — puisque vous m’aimez encore !
— Oh ! c’est vrai ! gronda-t-il sourdement, et comme désolé de
lui-même, comme découragé : C’est vrai, je l’aime encore… si cela
s’appelle aimer !
Il s’assit, la tête dans ses mains, comme vaincu par l’abondance
et la contradiction de ses émotions et de ses idées.
Toujours debout dans l’ombre, la comtesse d’Aiguebelle fit
encore un pas, — et, immobile, accrocha sa main à la tenture de la
porte. Si les yeux de Paul ou de Marie s’étaient tournés de ce côté,
ils auraient pu voir cette main pâle et crispée, au bord de cette
draperie de velours sombre.
Paul répéta sa phrase :
— Si cela s’appelle aimer !
— Pardi ! fit la jeune femme insolente et triomphante dans la
malice éternelle du Sexe. Pardi ! vous suez l’amour, mon cher ! Votre
amour pour moi ? mais il est en vous, hors de vous ! partout autour
de vous… Et c’est tant pis pour vous, croyez-moi, car après cette
petite conversation, vous pensez bien que c’est fini de ma part, les
soumissions et les bêtises… Sachez donc, Monsieur, toute la vérité
une fois pour toutes. Je n’ai plus aucune raison pour vous la cacher.
Voici ce que vous désirez tant savoir : Un autre que vous, oui,
m’aime vraiment. Il y a même trois ans de cela. Et je l’aime aussi. Et
c’est de votre ami que je parle… Je me suis trompée en vous
épousant.
Elle se mit à rire, de son rire à elle.
— Il m’aime, celui-là, poursuivit-elle, et elle insista avec une
insolence sans nom :
— Il m’aime, celui-là, puisqu’on peut le tromper !
Le comte Paul se demandait maintenant comment il la tuerait…
— Il sait aimer, celui-là, poursuivait-elle sur le même ton de
persiflage à le rendre fou… il sait aimer, puisqu’il sait pardonner
aveuglément. Celui-là me juge, et il me veut. Eh bien ! je l’aurai.
Sa voix redevint ferme, rapide, saccadée.
— Il sait tout, et il soutient mon courage. Il sait tout, et il vous
condamne. Il sait tout et, — je le sens, j’en suis sûre…
Elle haussa la voix avec autorité :
— … Si je fais un signe, il y aura un éclat… Le divorce est là pour
me sauver de vous, et cet homme qui m’aime, — oui, votre ami, —
ne sera pas mon amant, entendez-vous : il sera mon mari !
Le comte bondit sur elle avec un cri :
— Malheureuse !
Mais à ce moment, il vit et reconnut, au bord de la draperie
sombre, une main pâle, une petite main crispée…
Il s’arrêta, fou.
Un bruit sourd fit retourner Marie.
— Maman ! criait Paul.
Elle gisait, la mère, abattue, devant la draperie encore
frissonnante, à laquelle elle s’était retenue durant quelques minutes.
D’un mouvement machinal, pendant que le comte Paul relevait
doucement la pauvre chère tête qui avait sonné contre le parquet, —
elle, Rita, avait couru dans sa chambre pour y chercher un verre
d’eau ; mais au moment où elle s’approchait de la mourante, la
comtesse d’Aiguebelle ouvrit les yeux, l’aperçut, et, le regard fixé sur
elle, ne remuant que ses lèvres, elle prononça distinctement :
— Vous, — sortez !… Sortez…, parce que je vais mourir !
Et elle referma ses grands yeux cernés.
La jeune femme sentit une douleur confuse l’envahir. Une sorte
de nuit tomba sur son esprit. Elle comprenait que la destinée fermait
derrière elle encore un des chemins par où elle aurait pu aller au
bonheur.
« Ah ! oui, songeait-elle en se retirant dans sa chambre, — sa
mère morte, tout est bien fini : je serai chassée. »
 Paul épiait un regard de sa mère, un signe de vie…
On était allé chercher le médecin, et l’abbé, — et, chez Pauline,
la petite Annette.
— Maman ! maman ! répétait le malheureux jeune homme,
n’osant la soulever, de peur de lui faire mal, de briser encore
quelque chose en elle ; et il restait là, à genoux tout contre elle, sur
le tapis.
Elle rouvrit lentement les yeux. Elle voulut parler. Sa langue était
embarrassée. Alors, elle se mit, visiblement, à s’appliquer, pour être
entendue, bien comprise, et elle articula :
— Contre ça, tout est bon… Divorce… Pauline…
Et, un peu après :
— Annette… Albert.
Et, quand tout le monde fut là, excepté l’étrangère, la maudite, —
tous, excepté Albert qui avait envoyé Pauline, — quand on l’eut
transportée sur le lit le plus proche, quand elle eut été embrassée
par les deux jeunes filles, elle regarda tout le monde d’un regard
long et voilé, sourit à chacun, à tous, fit un signe d’intelligence à
l’abbé, puis souleva et étendit un peu, au-dessus d’elle, ses deux
mains fines, si fines, si petites, si transparentes, et dit :
— Mes enfants… bénis !
Et cette nuit-là, l’abbé disait à Marie :
— Allez prier devant la morte, ma pauvre enfant… Je connaissais
son âme, moi. Elle vous pardonnera. C’était une âme d’amour, une
âme de Dieu !
 CINQUIÈME PARTIE

Ce qui se passa, durant cette nuit de veillée funèbre, dans l’esprit

de Rita, elle seule en connut l’horreur.
Ce fut après qu’on eut arrangé la morte, bien soigneusement, sur
son lit blanc, couvert de fleurs, après que ses enfants, Paul et
Annette, assistés de Pauline, l’eurent embrassée encore, — que
l’abbé, sur la prière de Paul, alla chercher la jeune femme. Paul avait
pris à part son vieux maître, une minute, dans l’embrasure d’une
croisée, et l’avait, d’un mot, mis au courant, achevant ainsi son
explication :
— Il faut à présent qu’elle paraisse, qu’elle s’agenouille devant ce
lit, que les serviteurs la voient parmi nous… Il faut aussi, — n’est-ce
pas, l’abbé ? — qu’elle se débatte avec sa conscience, devant cette
morte… Qui sait ?… La mort mystérieuse sera peut-être sur elle plus
puissante que la vie.
Alors, le prêtre était allé appeler cette femme qui marchait, — il le
croyait maintenant, — précédée et suivie d’une force étrange de
destruction.
Déjà, dans la solitude de sa chambre, la malheureuse souffrait.
Elle sentait, dans le secret de son cœur endurci, comme un effort
singulier pour s’attendrir, qui lui était affreusement douloureux, car la
transformation ne s’opérait pas. Elle ne pouvait pas aimer. Elle ne
pouvait pas avoir pitié de ces enfants dont elle entendait parfois, à
quelques pas d’elle, la plainte étouffée. Elle ne savait pas comment
on est bon. Mais elle revoyait la face de la mourante, ses yeux tout
grands ouverts ; elle entendait encore ce mot méprisant venir à elle
du fond de l’agonie : « Sortez, vous, — parce que je vais mourir… »
Ce mot voulait-il dire qu’elle était indigne d’assister à cette chose de
mystère, plus sacrée que la vie : la mort ? Assurément. Et elle
frémissait, dans une épouvante, se sentait maudite, retrouvait des
terreurs d’enfance au souvenir des peines éternelles…
Aussi, lorsque apparut l’abbé dans sa chambre, avec son visage
de bonté, elle tendit en silence les bras vers lui, comme s’il lui
apportait une espérance. Elle tendit les bras, muette, le visage
contracté, comme s’il allait pouvoir jeter dans ses bras ouverts
l’invisible chose attendue, désirable, devenue matérielle… C’était un
geste d’appel vers le secours d’en-haut, un geste d’enfant tombée
qui dit : « Relève-moi. Seule, je ne peux pas. Je suis trop faible… Il
faut m’aider ! »
Il comprit et ne répondit qu’en élevant un doigt vers le haut, et
cela voulait dire : « Moi, je ne peux rien. Adressez-vous à un plus
puissant, à Celui qui est le seul maître des consciences, le seul juge
des intentions, et qui a dans sa main le trouble et la paix de toutes
les âmes. »
C’est alors qu’il l’avait entraînée vers la chambre mortuaire, avec
ces paroles : — « Elle vous pardonnera. C’était une âme d’amour,
une âme de Dieu. »
Paul avait ordonné aux jeunes filles de se retirer pour quelques
heures. Et quand sa femme entra dans la chambre de sa mère, il se
leva ; et de même que l’abbé avait désigné le ciel, de même il
désigna du doigt, à celle qui venait, — la place au pied du lit, où elle
devait s’agenouiller, s’écraser contre terre dans le repentir. Elle y
tomba, appuya son front sur le bord du lit, et, sans savoir à ce
moment ce qu’elle pensait, se perdit dans la nuit d’elle-même. Elle
resta ainsi longtemps. Et, tout au fond de son obscurité intérieure,
lentement se leva une forme pâle qui peu à peu prit la figure de la
vieille mère… Elle avait l’air triste, cette figure, l’air sévère, mais non
pas irrité. Alors, Marie se mit à murmurer dans son cœur, malgré
elle : « Oh ! pardon ! pardon ! » — Et ce mot, elle se mit à le dire
aussi avec les lèvres, et, à mesure qu’elle le répétait, le visage de
l’apparition se faisait toujours moins triste, moins sévère ; puis, peu à
peu, il se mit à sourire, d’un sourire ineffable.
Alors, Rita se tourna involontairement, péniblement, — comme si
elle eût obéi à une force inexorable, — vers le fils de la morte qu’elle
sentait toujours debout derrière elle, comme un témoin et comme un
juge. Le prêtre était toujours à côté de Paul. Elle, toujours
agenouillée, les regarda, sans que ses mains jointes quittassent le
bord du lit funèbre… Leurs visages, à eux aussi, étaient sévères,
tristes, mais elle ne vit dans leurs yeux qu’une bonté infinie, — une
infinie pitié… De nouveau, ses lèvres s’ouvrirent, et elle dit, ainsi
tournée à demi vers eux : « Pardon ! » — Alors les visages des deux
hommes devinrent moins graves, moins tristes ; et elle regarda la
morte, et, très distinctement, elle la vit sourire. Et le prêtre
s’approcha : il lui toucha légèrement le bras : « — Venez. C’est
assez. »
Elle eut une envie obscure de résister, de crier : « Non ! non !
Laissez-moi là ! Je veux être là ; il me faut le pardon de cette
morte !… Paul, pardonnez-moi ! » Mais elle sentit très bien que
c’était son démon familier qui lui soufflait ce désir de faire tourner en
comédie profitable, en scène théâtrale, son secret mouvement de
repentir, le premier qui fût profond, qui lui parût supérieur à son
intelligence.
Elle se leva, docile, les yeux baissés, passa devant son maître
sans rien dire, sans l’implorer du regard, et rentra dans sa chambre,
où l’accompagna l’abbé.
L’abbé la quitta, puis revint au bout d’un moment.
— Votre mari, lui dit-il, désire maintenant que vous preniez
quelque repos.
Il ajouta :
 — Obéissez-lui en toute chose. C’est lui qui sait ce qu’il faut.
Et enfin, comme pour répondre à cette question qu’il devinait :
« Croyez-vous qu’on puisse être pardonné, après tant de choses
terribles ? » — il dit :
— Tout passe ; Dieu seul demeure.
 II

Huit jours plus tard, de toutes ces visions, rien n’était resté dans
la tête de la jeune femme.
Le lendemain matin même, la clarté du jour avait dissipé comme
un rêve le souvenir de ces réalités.
Elle disait à l’abbé :
— Est-ce moi, Monsieur l’abbé, qui suis cause de ce grand
malheur ? Voyons, la comtesse écoutait. Comment prévoir cela ?
Que dirait-on si l’on me surprenait faisant une chose pareille ? Et
puis, suis-je allée chercher Paul pour cette discussion ? C’est lui qui
a commencé… Si vous aviez vu et entendu ! Il m’a exaspérée : j’ai
répliqué. Et si ce n’est pas lui qui a frappé au cœur sa malheureuse
mère, mettons-nous que ce soit nous ; mais ce n’est pas moi seule.
Voilà, Monsieur l’abbé, ce qu’il faut bien lui dire.
Ces beaux raisonnements positifs, elle les fit accepter sans peine
à Albert, qu’elle put voir, chez lui, à qui elle put parler un instant en
particulier, dans un coin du salon, tandis que Paul, causant avec
Madame de Barjols, n’osait pas les interrompre, — pour ne pas
inquiéter la vieille dame.
L’abbé, lui, répondait à cette dialectique :
— C’est fort bien raisonné, cela, ma pauvre enfant, mais
beaucoup trop bien ! Ne comprenez-vous pas que Paul s’est fait tous
ces reproches ? Toutes ces choses, il se les est dites à lui-même. Ce
n’est pas à vous de les dire, ni de les penser. La générosité, la
tendresse, le pardon, l’amour, sont plus grands que la justice, ma
pauvre enfant, plus grands par conséquent que la justesse des
meilleurs raisonnements les mieux arrangés par la parole. Il faut
aimer. L’amour éclaire tout d’une autre lumière… Mais il faut
découvrir l’amour soi-même. Cherchez en vous. Résistez au passé.
Cherchez l’éternel.
Alors, l’ancienne Rita renaissait. Elle commençait à le trouver
ennuyeux, l’abbé… « Il me manquait celui-là. Ça n’était déjà pas si
drôle… Et, à présent, me revoilà en deuil… Ah ! non ! ça n’est pas
gai, l’existence… Pas même moyen d’aller au spectacle ! »
Berthe était revenue la voir. C’est à elle qu’elle parlait ainsi.
Elle sentait bien que même son repentir ne lui rendrait pas son
mari. Il y avait entre eux maintenant la mort de la comtesse. Cet
obstacle-là était certainement infranchissable. Alors ? — Alors, n’est-
ce pas, elle ne pouvait pourtant pas renoncer à la vie ?… Elle avait
eu joliment raison de se ménager une issue pour sortir de cet
abîme : Albert, lui seul, devait l’en tirer… Ah ! si Léon donnait de ses
nouvelles !…
— Reviens me voir, ma chère, tu es de si bon conseil !
Elle avait fini par conter à Berthe tout, y compris sa nuit de
noces.
— Non, pas possible !… Quel drôle d’homme !
Et c’était des papotages à perte vue, sur l’un, sur l’autre.
— Et Lérin de La Berne ?
— L’Ecrin de La Perle ? — Flambé, ma chère !… La moelle
épinière.
— Pauvre mignon !
— En voilà un qu’il faudra rayer de ta liste… Mais non, quand j’y
songe ! C’est à pouffer, ta liste !
— Eh bien ! quoi ?
— Eh bien ! ça faisait prévoir un album très gribouillé — et — pas
du tout… la première page est encore blanche !
Elles riaient comme des folles.
— Et ton mari à toi, ma petite Berthe ?
— Je ne le vois plus. Mais il devient urgent que je le revoie.
 — Pourquoi ça ?
— Dame, tu ne comprends pas ?
— Non, ma foi.
— Petite sotte !
— Explique-toi.
— Relis Quitte pour la peur, après avoir relu La Chute d’un ange.
— Ah ! bah ?
— Que veux-tu ! On n’est pas parfaite.
Pendant ce temps, Paul disait à l’abbé :
— Croyez-vous qu’elle s’amende, l’abbé ? Je la plains si
profondément.
L’abbé secouait la tête.
— Je crois que tu avais raison. C’est irrémédiable. Ça me coûte à
dire… Il faudra t’en séparer.
— Eh ! l’abbé, ce serait fait si je ne la redoutais pas pour Albert. Il
l’aime toujours, l’abbé, c’est certain. Je l’ai bien vu à la manière
silencieuse dont il a accueilli l’affreux récit que je lui ai fait de la mort
de ma mère !… Il n’a pas osé me contredire, à cause de la gravité
des circonstances, mais je le connais : il est buté. Et puis, elle le
tient. Je sais ce que c’est. Il est ce que j’ai été pendant deux ans
pour elle, — jusqu’à l’épouser… On est aveugle et sourd.
— Alors ?
— Alors, je la garde, et je la garderai jusqu’à ce que j’aie contre
elle une de ces preuves palpables, matérielles, auxquelles doit se
rendre le jury le plus récalcitrant, — l’esprit le plus positif et
l’amoureux le plus ensorcelé… Cette femme, l’abbé, c’est un
malheur. Un malheur, ça se garde pour soi. Ça n’est vraiment pas un
cadeau à faire à un ami ! J’aime bien trop Albert pour ne pas essayer
jusqu’au bout de le sauver malgré lui.
 III

Le comte Paul se demanda s’il ne retournerait pas en Provence,

maintenant qu’il n’avait plus à éviter la présence de sa pauvre mère.
Cette décision lui parut devoir être ajournée.
Avant tout, il fallait songer à se séparer d’Annette, à éloigner
cette enfant sans mère du voisinage de sa femme. La vie à deux, là-
bas, lui serait un peu dure, en tête à tête avec cette femme abhorrée
aujourd’hui, en deuil de la mère qu’elle avait tuée ! Mais surtout il ne
croyait pas possible — et pour cause, — la guérison d’Albert par
l’absence. Il fallait rester à Paris, c’est-à-dire sur le terrain de Rita,
sur le lieu de ses anciennes relations. Là seulement un incident
pouvait, d’un moment à l’autre, fournir il ne savait quelles preuves
décisives qui la rendraient méprisable à son pauvre ami, à celui qui,
depuis la recommandation suprême de sa mère, lui semblait être le
fiancé d’Annette.
Il attendait, il épiait ; — il surveillait étroitement sa femme, sans
trop en avoir l’air, et, tout en courant à ses occupations, il ne la
perdait pas de vue.
« Contre ça, tout est bon ! » avait dit sa mère mourante.
Ce mot l’encourageait à avoir des surveillances qui lui eussent
répugné jadis. S’il rencontrait, par exemple, Baptiste ou Catherine,
ses vieux domestiques, ou son valet de chambre portant des lettres,
— il regardait les noms des destinataires, ou les écritures de ceux
qui écrivaient à Marie. Il réprimait à grand’peine une envie violente
de décacheter une ou deux de ces lettres, qu’on eût dit ensuite avoir
égarées. Il put ainsi apprendre qu’elle avait écrit plusieurs fois à
Albert et que celui-ci répondait.
Albert ne venait plus. On allait chez lui, car les deux jeunes filles
et Madame de Barjols ne devaient pas croire à un refroidissement