Emotional intelligence, psychological ownership, and digital resilience as mechanisms linking internal social media use to perceived organizational performance.

This study examines how internal social media use (SMU) relates to employees' perceived organizational performance (ORP) by exploring the mediating roles of emotional intelligence, psychological ownership, creative engagement, and digital resilience. Grounded in the Resource-Based View and Social Exchange Theory, the study conceptualizes internal social media as a strategic digital resource that shapes employee psychological capabilities within contemporary workplaces. Data were collected from 792 full-time employees working in small and medium-sized enterprises in China using a cross-sectional, online survey. Structural Equation Modeling with bootstrapping was used to examine relationships among the constructs. The findings show that SMU is positively associated with emotional intelligence, psychological ownership, creative engagement, digital resilience, and perceived organizational performance. Moreover, all psychological constructs have significant indirect associations between SMU and ORP. The study contributes to digital workplace research by integrating psychological resource pathways into the examination of internal social technologies. It also offers practical insights, suggesting that organizations seeking to enhance performance should focus not only on technological investments but also on initiatives that cultivate emotional, psychological, and adaptive employee capacities.