In the last decades, the services industry has faced new challenges in the global economy recognizing more and more the crucial role of the human capital. Globalization of the market, internationalization of the firms, high innovativeness in the products and processes, dematerialization of the production process represent only a few challenging phenomena that the services firms have to manage. Human resources in the services industry play always a key role but, in most cases, they still have been conceived merely as costs within the accounting information systems.

In this brief context, it seems necessary to identify and investigate a set of tools able to support the strategic human resources management suggesting the right direction in their improvement and evaluation. Innovative and sophisticated strategic and managerial tools are needed to harness the great potential of the human resources contributing significantly to the firm performance. On one side, scholars and practitioners tend to adapt the potential of human resources to the organisational needs increasing their level of stress with high burnout risks; on the other side, human resources operate in a more technological and competitive workplace and need continuously to enrich and change their skills and competences.

The aim of this special issue is to extend the conceptual and empirical research on the Human Resource Management (HRM) focusing the attention on the strategic and managerial tools that allow either to improve and evaluate the human resources or to measure and control the specific contribution of human resources to the performance. Top management can be supported from these tools developed thanks to data and information gathered.

We welcome conceptual and empirical papers that make clear contributions to the described issue in the services industry such as tourism and hospitality, shipping, educational, transportation, health care, sporting, and public administration settings.

Theoretical and empirical explorations are needed to understand how strategic and managerial tools for the services firms and their human capital can be created, how they work, and how they can help to manage the deep changes in the global economy.

Aims and Scope:

1. Human resources (HR) and accounting information system
2. Strategy, performance and human capital management
3. Human capital in the financial statements
4. Implications of innovative managerial tools in the improvement of human resources
5. HR policies and practices in the globalized economy
6. Planning, control systems and reporting in HRM
7. Performance evaluation and measurement in HRM
8. Value creation and HRM policies
9. Developing and evaluating HR potential and skills
10. Analysing relationships between HRM systems and accounting and management control systems.