During the 1980s, and particularly since the market crash of 1987, corporations and entrepreneurs have been seeking new ways to finance the establishment and growth of new businesses. One of the outcomes of these efforts has been the hybrid security, generically called dequity because it is neither a bond nor a stock. In this work, Andrew Chen and John Kensinger examine the various forms of dequity, describing its characteristics, how it evolved, how it's being used, and what the future may hold for it.

In looking at the many financial innovations that blended the traits of debt and...