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Inter-organizational relationships have a rich background in business. This is due to increasing competition on one hand, and dramatic improvement in production, marketing, and information technologies on the other hand. Almost all organizations rely on their relationship with other counterparts and receive a significant benefit for their business success. Different organizations have preferred various forms to adapt this idea including Joint venture, Networking, Consortia, Trade association, and Interlocking Directorate. These forms have a profound theoretical background and it is crucial to understand these theories in order to take the appropriate form. This paper reviews the main theoretical paradigms including Transaction cost economics, Resource dependence, Strategic alliances, Stakeholder theory, Learning theory, and Institutional theory along with their strengths and weaknesses. The analysis suggests that there is no single influential theory on all the popular forms and a contingency approach should be adopted for successful implementation of the inter-organizational relationship management.