Bonds issued by companies refer to the loan certificates issued by joint-stock companies for additional capital within a certain period of time (such as 10 or 20 years). For the holder, it is only a voucher to provide loans to the company, reflecting only an ordinary creditor-debtor relationship. Although the holder has no right to participate in the operation and management activities of the joint-stock company, he can charge the company fixed interest at par value every year, and the order of collecting interest should take precedence over shareholders' dividends. When the joint-stock company goes bankrupt, he can also get back the principal first. Corporate bonds have a long term, generally more than 10 years. Once the bond expires, the joint-stock company must repay the principal and redeem the bond.

The concept of corporate bonds in textbooks is basically defined as follows: "Corporate bonds are securities issued by companies in accordance with legal procedures and agreed to repay the principal and interest within a certain period of time". At the same time, it further shows the creditor-debtor relationship between bond issuing companies and bond investors. The bondholder of a company is the creditor of the company, not the owner of the company, which is the biggest difference from the stock holder. Bondholders have the right to receive interest from the company according to the agreed conditions and recover the principal at maturity. Earning interest takes precedence over shareholders' dividends, and also takes precedence over shareholders' recovery of principal when the company goes bankrupt and liquidates. However, bondholders cannot participate in the operation, management and other activities of the company.

Issuers and debtors of bonds are "companies", not enterprises of other organizational forms. The company here is not an ordinary enterprise, but a "corporatized" enterprise. An enterprise that issues corporate bonds must be a legal person enterprise, that is, a "company". Under normal circumstances, other types of enterprises, such as sole proprietorship, partnership and cooperative enterprises, do not have the property right basis for issuing corporate bonds and cannot issue corporate bonds. State-owned enterprises are wholly-owned enterprises, and theoretically they cannot issue corporate bonds. However, according to China's relevant laws and regulations, China's state-owned enterprises have their special property rights characteristics different from other countries, and they can also issue bonds-corporate bonds (non-statutory corporate bonds). Moreover, not all companies can issue corporate bonds. Theoretically, companies that issue corporate bonds must bear limited liabilities, such as "limited liability companies" and "joint stock limited companies". Other types of companies, such as unlimited liability companies and joint stock limited companies, cannot issue corporate bonds.