Lease finance in industrial markets

Financial leasing is being used increasingly to acquire items of industrial equipment where use is more crucial than ownership. Its advantages over traditional forms of finance are straightforward and to a large degree appear to be based on the utilization of a cost advantage deriving from the fiscal system. In view of this, it might be expected that price would be a dominant marketing variable since the ‘product’ is relatively homogeneous, even though the industry structure is oligopolistic. This has been the case to a certain extent but policies of product differentiation and market segmentation have enabled firms to avoid some of the rigours of price competition.