Amuti, Mathews Ondiek2024-08-212024-08-212024-07https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/28681A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business, Economics and Tourism in Partial Fulfilment of the Award of Degree in Master of Business Administration (Strategic Management), Kenyatta University, July 2024. Supervisor Lawrence WainainaThe study's goal was to investigate the effect of strategic innovation on the performance of Sarova Whitesands Hotel. The Sarova Whitesands beach resort and Spa in Mombasa County, Kenya, was the subject of the study. The broad literature analysis made it clear that innovations have a transformative impact on the productivity and operational efficiency of hotels as a whole. Despite praises for advancements in service areas such as hotels, the hotel sector performance has continued to worsen over the previous ten years, and Sarova Whitesands Hotel has not been spared. The study's specific objectives were to investigate the influence of technological innovation, process innovation, service innovation, and organisational innovation on the performance of the Sarova Whitesands hotel in Mombasa. The study's theoretical framework was built on the diffusion of innovation theory, the Schumpeter theory of innovation, the organizational innovation theory, and the disruptive innovation theory. In terms of research methodology, the study employed a cross-sectional and descriptive research designs to determine the relationship between the studied variables. The target demographic, comprised of 46 respondents, were the management and supervisory employees of Mombasa's Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort. Due to the small size of the population of interest, the researcher conducted a census. A structured questionnaire was utilised to gather primary data, and relevant web resources, such as journals and hotel reviews, were used to gather secondary data. To examine the data tools' internal consistency and validity, a pilot test was carried out. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS v.25) was used to conduct a quantitative analysis of the data gathered through surveys. The data was subjected to descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Where appropriate, frequency tables were used to present the results. The results indicated that process innovation and organizational innovation statistically significantly predicted the performance of Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa in Mombasa. However, technological innovation and service innovation had no statistically significant influence on the performance of Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa in Mombasa. The study concludes that process innovation and organizational innovation statistically significantly predicted the performance of Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort in Mombasa County, Kenya. Therefore, increased use of process innovation and organizational innovation would result in improved performance of the hotel. The management of Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort should study their strategic innovations closely in order to understand the best innovations to create and put into practice that have the potential to boost performance. Policy makers in the hospitality industry should conduct a strategic review of policies in the sector with a view of strengthening and aligning the policies towards supporting the adoption of strategic innovations in the hotel business.enThesis