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The purpose of this paper is to discuss academic spinoffs (ASO) as an expression of the value creation of university technology transfer (TT) investments. More recently, scholars have emphasised intellectual capital’s (IC) importance, also for universities in obtaining competitive advantages and by creating value. Such spinoffs are key to regional development, as a primary aspect of universities’ IC.

The authors tested the aim through a sample of the University of Pisa’s spinoffs. The authors measured the value the university’s third mission investment generates on the area by means of entrepreneurship through two different approaches. First, the authors defined a multiplier of the TT investment (university TT multiplier) and then explored the IC components’ contributions to the ASOs’ enterprise value (EV).

The results show that the University of Pisa’s TT investments positively impact the local community through the spinoff system, both in economic terms and in IC. In the long term, these investments can enrich scientific humus and entrepreneurial mindsets.

This is an exploratory study of the University of Pisa’s impacts on the local economy. The results are limited to the context of Pisa and to the TT policy. Another limitation is the subjectivity of the EV estimation.

The results can have some practical implications. The large portfolio of university stakeholders (policymakers, families, students, companies, financiers, etc.) ask for information, especially on long-term results: in a simple way, the multiplier is able to communicate important feedbacks to support their decision-making process.

With the multiplier, the authors give a tool to measure the social enrichment.

In the study, the authors propose a new tool to measure the impact of the investment in TT on the local community.

The research approach adopted in this article intends to validate ‘place awareness’ as a fundamental element, together and beyond the consideration of classic economic factors, in assessing the endogenous potential of tourism development of a territory. ‘Place awareness’ emerges as a determining factor in the processes of tourist development since it decides the type of relationship that is established with local resources, influencing their use and therefore the forms and modalities of their enhancement. Without the emergence of a ‘place awareness’ capable of recognizing and mobilizing the resources of the territory, the implementation of tourism development policies lead to growth dynamics which are poorly territorialized and predictably not lasting. In order for there to be development of a place, it is necessary that the place is preliminarily renown: the ‘place awareness’ manifests precisely the extent and intensity of this recognition.

To affirm the centrality of ‘place awareness’ in local tourism development processes, Sambuca di Sicilia, located in the Province of Agrigento, was chosen as a case study. The village, following the surprising victory in 2016 of the national competition ‘The most beautiful village in Italy’, is engaged in a promising transition phase with a strong evolutionary potential centred on redefining its identity in terms of a tourist village that focuses on the rich and wide range of local resources available.