Une « mise en territoire » de la filière amande en Provence : quelle performance de l’accélérateur régional de projets de développement économique de la région Sud en Françe ?
A “territorial development” of the almond sector in Provence: what performance of the regional accelerator of economic development projects in the South region of France?

Summary/Abstract: This article studies the effects of a regional accelerator on the innovation capacities of project leaders implementing territorial development projects, in terms of economic and sustainable development. The accelerated project selected for a first study is that of the development of the almond sector in Provence. Two research streams are articulated. The stream of regional innovation capacities where four categories of capital (human, relational, structural and social) are given as the main ingredients in building a regional capacity for innovation. The second stream is based on the concept of performativity, stemming from the social agency theory, allowing to express that the capacity of action of a project leader and therefore his capital would be transformed through the experience and the opportunities offered in the accompaniment by the accelerator. The qualitative method is that of the embedded case study combined with an auto-ethnographic approach. Different types of data were collected over the period June 2018-June 2019. The result shows the effects ofthe work of the accelerator on the transformation and combination over time of the capital and capacities of the project leader. It suggests a complex and sometimes contradictory balance, between a concrete transformation effort resulting from a first transformation of the relational capital through the investment of national stakehoders to develop the almond sector and the response to territorial issues of sustainable development that go beyond this initial ambition, requiring the participation of a more diversified social capital in the region.

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