Role of Leasing in Financing Business Activity of Enterprises in Poland

The development of enterprises requires permanent investment and searching for sources of effective support for business activity. Therefore, when entrepreneurs create new development opportunities, they look for appropriate sources of support for the activities of enterprises. In the opinion of entrepreneurs, such an attractive source of financial support is leasing. Due to the benefits of leasing business activities, more and more business entities in Poland have decided to use this form of obtaining capital. The aim of the study is an attempt to define the significance and role of leasing in financing economic activity of enterprises in Poland. Firstly, based on the literature review, the essence, types, advantages and disadvantages of leasing were presented, and an attempt was made to evaluate the current market of leasing services in Poland and the prospects for its development. Secondly, based on the results of a survey of a representative sample of entrepreneurs in Podlasie Province (North-west Poland) their opinion on the importance of leasing as a form of enterprise support was presented. The conducted research has shown that leasing is a willingly chosen source of financing business activity. According to entrepreneurs, favorable financing conditions as well as understandable and easy procedures turned out to be important properties, characteristic of leasing. The results of the conducted research provide knowledge about the advantages, disadvantages, availability and profitability of leasing, noticed by entrepreneurs in the studied region. They are of pure scientific and application significance, making it possible to predict the nature of the leasing market in Poland in the near future.