Optimising Social Media Identity Functionality for Enhanced Performance of Licensed Accommodation Facilities in Uganda

The hospitality sector contributes to the Ugandan economy, with 667,000 people (6.7% of total employment) reported to be employed in the sector. Despite this, several licensed accommodation facilities are underperforming, with occupancy rates below the benchmark of 30%. Previous studies have increasingly examined social media in the hospitality sector, focusing mostly on its general usage while overlooking the effects of specific social media functionalities on firm performance. This study addresses the identified gap by analysing how social media identity functionalities affect the performance of licensed accommodation firms in Uganda. The study was grounded in the resource-based view theory and the social media functionality framework. It employed a quantitative research approach with a correlational research design. From 185 licensed accommodation facilities, a sample of 180 managers was surveyed, whereas 19 assistant managers participated in the pretesting of the questionnaire. Validity was established using the content validity index, and reliability was established through Cronbach's alpha (>0.7). Descriptive statistics (frequencies and means) and inferential statistics, primarily linear regression analysis, were used in data analysis to test the research hypotheses. The study findings revealed that social media identity functionality had a statistically significant effect on the performance of licensed accommodation facilities in Uganda (F 5, 174 = 62.498, p < .001). Together, the variables accounted for 50.6% of the variance in performance (R2 = .506). The evidence suggests that social media does not only serve communication purposes; rather, it becomes a strategic resource if select functionalities are harnessed. The study therefore recommends that accommodation establishments in Uganda can enhance their performance by adopting certain social media functionalities in their marketing and customer engagement strategies. These findings contribute to the literature by broadening the understanding of social media's role in firm performance, particularly in the context of licensed accommodation establishments in developing economies where empirical evidence is limited.