Part­ner­ships refer to any for­mal or infor­mal rela­tion­ship between two or more com­pa­nies that involves coop­er­a­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion. These rela­tion­ships can be strate­gic or more casu­al, and may involve a vari­ety of activ­i­ties such as mar­ket­ing, sales, research and devel­op­ment, and oth­er forms of col­lab­o­ra­tion. Part­ner­ships are col­lab­o­ra­tive busi­ness rela­tion­ships, not trans­ac­tion­al relationships.