As shown in Figure 5, ketenyl anion has two major resonance structures: ketenyl form and ynolate form. Due to the resonance structures, alkali metal cations can be coordinated to either at central carbon atom or terminal oxygen atom depending on its electronic structure. A series of structural analysis revealed both ketene and ynolate structures evenly contribute to the overall electronic structure of ketenyl anion.
From an example in Gessners paper, the crystal structure of the ketenyl anion K[PPh(=S)CCO] had the bond length of C-C bond (1.245 Å) and C-O bond (1.215 Å). By comparing these bond length with Pyykkős analysis on bond, C-C bond is in between double bond and triple bond whereas C-O bond is in between single bond and double bond. In natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, Wiberg bond index is found to be 2.06 and 1.72 for C-C bond and C-O bond, respectively. These values also suggests that both double and triple bond character for C-C bond (range of 1.20 - 1.34 Å) and both single bond and double bond character for C-O bond (range of 1.24 - 1.38 Å). The characteristic of allene-like (C=C=C) structure is also applied other ketenyl anion compounds so far. Inoue's silica-ketenyl anion product, shown in Figure 3, had Wiberg bond index of 1.68 and 1.76 for Si-C bond and C-O bond, respectively. Their bond indices demonstrate that both Si-C and C-O bonds have part of double bond character that contributes of Si=C=O structure.
This ketenyl anion can dimerize in solid state as oxygen atoms interacts with alkali metal cation. This dimer can be broken up by adding M(18-crown-6) (where M = alkali metal cation), resulting in isolation of single ketenyl anion structure. Intrinsic bond orbitals (IBO) of the molecule [K(PPh(=S)CCO] reveal molecular orbital describing π-orbital of C-C and C-O and delocalized orbital on oxygen atom.  
The stability of ketenyl anion is come from the decrease of charge on ketene carbon from parent ketene to ketenyl anion. In Gessner's study, parent ketenyl anion [H-C=C=O] has smaller positive charge (+4.0 e) on C compared to parent ketene [HC=C=O] (+7.0 e on C). This drops of charge makes the ketene less amphiphilic, leading to a more stable compound.