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Cash is one of the key items in the balance sheet, since it is necessary for every transaction. Cash holdings provide the company with flexibility and the ability to meet its own needs, regardless of existing business conditions. It can be significant in terms of the company’s internal financing, thus it is crucial to maintain an optimal level of cash, given that external financing also entails certain costs. An optimal level of cash holdings represents available money to investors and should increase general business efficiency. Achieving an optimal level of cash holdings provides the company with autonomy to explore new opportunities as well as take risks. An insufficient level of cash creates the need for financing from external sources, which is reflected in reduced investments and decreased sale of available assets and securities. However, a large amount of cash enables the company to respond to market trends and take advantage of investment opportunities so as to secure the financial power of the company.

The capability theory is concerned with an individual’s ability and opportunity to act, which grants the freedom to live life as one pleases (Sen, 1993). Based upon this theory, financial capability relates to the ability and opportunity to act (Johnson & Sherraden, 2007). A more detail definition given by Brown (2020) that financial capability is classified as internally focused including knowledge, skills, and behaviour, and those that also acknowledge a person’s external context including systems and structures. Many scholars concur that the concept of financial capability is much broader than the idea of financial literacy (Johnson & Sherraden, 2007; Kempson et al., 2013; Shim et al., 2013; Taylor, 2011). Studies explain that financial capability is a broader term, and financial literacy is just a building block of financial capability. It also includes financial advice and financial inclusion (Johnson & Sherraden, 2007). According to Sen’s (1993) theory, financial capability comes from two sources: internal ability and, second, from external opportunity.

Currently, at a time greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic affecting not only tourism but also other areas of business, there is demand for modern and effective trends of increasing profitability and cost-effectiveness, especially considering the fact that revenues in tourism have dropped worldwide by 74%. There is a noticeable pressure on cost reduction throughout society at this time. According to Sangeetha and Rebecca (2020), the green approach can, over the long term, reduce business operating costs while increasing the added value in society. Tourism represents 10% of global GDP and is also responsible for 5% of global CO2 emissions, of which 1% is attributed to accommodation facilities. Accommodation facilities, particularly hotels, are the key element of tourism (Khatter et al., 2021). In this respect, sustainable hotel strategies are primarily intended for maintaining and improving the socio-economic and environmental balance of our planet (Migale et al., 2019).

TPeople and especially talented individuals are of remarkable interest for many academics in research (Collings et al., 2019; Meyers et al., 2013; Krishnan & Scullion, 2017). The reason is very simple. Human resources are the most valuable resource a company should have. People are movers of each company and create added value. A high commitment human resources strategy leads to a firm competitive advantage (Collins, 2020). Employees play an important role in forming a competitive advantage for the organization. The role of the employees has become pronounced and significant, and it is no longer conventional. They are responsible for the strategic planning and development of the organization (Chakraborty & Biswas, 2019). Nowadays, firms operate in an environment which is characterized by many political, economic, social, and technological changes (Wee & Taylor, 2018).These changes force companies to transform themselves to gain greater prosperity or to survive (Ocasio et al., 2017; Riviere et al., 2017).

During recent decades, with the rise of worldwide competition and globalization, the noteworthiness of recruiting and retaining qualified employees has become an important factor in the success of the education industry (Gong et al., 2018). In other words, managing human resources plays a crucial role in increasing the sustainable competitive advantages of a higher education institute. Such a role is more profound in the education industry due to the direct effect of human resources, which consist of academics, on customers, who are students. Although recruiting highly talented academics is a challenging issue for human resource managers, retaining them within the organization, in the long term, requires high efforts and intention as well. It is quite clear that progress in science and technology improves the human being’s quality of life. Developing knowledge is the main purpose of the higher education system, which will be fulfilled by educating capable scientists. Academics and scholars are responsible for accomplishing this main goal of the higher education systém in universities. Iran is one of the countries which plays an active role in contributing to universal knowledge and technology (Naderi & Safarzade, 2014).