Table 14 reveals an f-value of 4.

688 which means that there is a significant difference on

the business strategies of sole proprietors in Digos City when grouped according to educational

attainment. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. This is supported by the p-value of .002

which is lower than the 0.05 level of significance. It means that the strategies of proprietors are

different depending on their educational attainment. Since there is a significant difference, post

hoc analysis was employed. The analysis showed that the difference was seen between College

graduate and High school undergraduate with a mean difference of 0.761, college undergraduate

with high school graduate with a mean difference of 0.646, and college graduate and college

undergraduate with a mean difference of 0.771. A study conducted by Kim (1996) involving the

respondents in Singapore, he disclosed that successful business owners have higher educational

levels compared to that of unsuccessful business owners. As to Holt (1992), his study reveals

that sole proprietors with higher levels of educational attainment are more likely to succeed

compared to those unsuccessful sole proprietors because university education provides them with

knowledge and managerial skills.

Monthly income. Table 15 below shows the significant difference on the level of business

strategies when grouped according to their monthly income.

Table 15. Level of business strategies when grouped according to monthly income.

Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.

Between Groups .510 3 .170 .357 .784

Within Groups 35.669 75 .476

Total 36.179 78
 Table 15 shows the difference on the level of business strategies among sole proprietors

in Digos City when grouped according to their monthly income. Result showed an f-value of .

357 which suggests that there is no significant difference. Hence, the null hypothesis is

accepted. This is supported by the p-value of .784 which is higher than the 0.05 level of

significance. It posits that regardless of the respondents’ number of employees on their business,

there is no difference on the business strategies of sole proprietors in Digos City.

Based from the results, only the sex and the educational attainment have a significant

difference on the level of business strategies when grouped according to demographic profile.

Age, civil status, monthly income, number of employees, and the number of years in the business

have no significant difference on the level of business strategies when grouped according to the

demographic profile.

Influence of Leadership Styles to the Sole Proprietors’ Business Strategies

Sub- problem number five (5) deals with the influence of leadership styles to the business

strategies of sole proprietors in Digos City. Regression Analysis was employed to solve the

significant influence among the two (2) variables. Table 16 below shows the results on the

significant influence of the sole proprietors’ leadership styles to their business strategies.
Table 16. Significant influence of leadership styles to the sole proprietors’ business strategy

Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients

Indicators B Std. Error Beta t Sig.

(Constant) .828 .645 1.283 .203

Consultative Leaders .383 .129 .317 2.957 .004

Exploitative Leaders .077 .078 .111 .993 .324

Democratic Leaders .219 .124 .222 1.767 .081

Benevolent Leaders .414 .142 .330 2.913 .005

Autocartic Leaders -.214 .091 -.244 -2.342 .022

Laissez- faire leaders -.147 .095 -.185 -1.543 .127

a. Dependent Variable: Business Strategies

R Square- .307

F-value- 5.385

P-value- .000

Using Regression analysis on the influence of leadership styles to business strategies, the

result yielded the goodness of fit of the model as evidence by the f-value of 5.385 and the p-

value of 0.000 which is lower than the 0.05 level of significance. Also, the results revealed an R

Square value of .307 which means that 30.7% of the deviation in the dependent variable can be

explained by the deviation in the independent variable. Looking the coefficient table, it revealed

that only consultative, benevolent and autocratic have significant influence on business

strategies. If further suggests that in every unit increase in consultative and benevolent, it will
increase business strategies by 0.383 and 0.414, respectively. However, in every unit increase in

autocratic leadership, it will decrease their business strategies by 0.214.

Hence, the three types of leadership styles, namely consultative leaders, benevolent

leaders and the autocratic leaders are most of the leadership styles that has a significant influence

of leadership styles to their business strategies. In the study of Yukongdi (2010), it shows that

consultative manager was the most preferred style of leader for employees. In United Kingdom

industries, age is directly related to consultative leadership style of managers (Oshagbemi, 2008).

Also in China, it shows that entrepreneurial leadership is related to exploitative innovations and

is positively related to new venture performance (Huang, Ding, & Chen, 2014). Moreover, in the

study of Shead (2013), he stressed out that leadership style is a pattern of behavior designed to

integrate organizational and personal interest in pursuit of an objective. The guidance and

direction of the leaders that is, leadership style is important in ensuring that strategies are

implemented successfully and desired outcomes are achieved. Therefore, the researchers pointed

out that there is a significant influence on the leadership styles to the business strategies of the

sole proprietors.