Partnering, as a new generation of client-contractor relationship arrangement in the Western countries´ construction industry, has been used extensively in recent years and is regarded by many academic commentators and practitioners as an innovative and important management approach in construction procurement. However, the research on partnering in domestic construction academic literature is not very active. This has something to do with both the characteristics of China? s construction industry and the inactivity of the construction management research in general. On the basis of a background analysis of partnering, this paper proposes a concept model of partnering to facilitate the understanding of the significant aspects of partnering. A literature review is conducted based on this model which examines the relevant sources of partnering literature in the mainstream international high quality construction management journals and the future direction of partnering research in domestic context is outlined. The paper further summarizes the behavioral essence of partnering arrangement and points out the relevance of partnering in domestic construction industry.