Extracting the Effective Factors on Corporate Governance Formation in Strategic Alliances with Focus on International Joint Ventures through Systematic Literature Review

Despite its high complexity, the strategy of forming international joint venture (as one of the main types of strategic alliances) is one of the strategies to be frequently used because of its numerous benefits. Corporate governance is also considered as one of the factors that leads to the successful implementation of this strategy. In spite of the importance of this issue, there has been no comprehensive research on how corporate governance is formed in international joint ventures, and it has often been assumed that the components of corporate governance in general can be generalized to the concept of international joint ventures as well. However, given the complexity of this concept, it is generally unwise to generalize the various dimensions of corporate governance in general to international joint ventures. As a result, this study attempts to identify the factors affecting the formation of corporate governance in these kinds of organizations.

Methodology

The present research is conducted based on the systematic literature review method. For this purpose, the related literature was systematically reviewed over a period of one year (from September 2018 to September 2019). In the first step, while determining and specifying the subject of study, the research questions were developed in accordance with the research design. In the next step, the research protocol was designed and an appropriate mental model was designed accordingly. Subsequently, inclusion and exclusion criteria were determined. Accordingly, the comprehensive and systematic search began within the literature and 400 studies were considered. After classification, screening, and measurement of their quality (methodological assessment based on Caldwell's proposed method), 60 studies were finally examined in depth (through a detailed review of their abstracts, introduction, methodology, and results) and the required data were collected. Then, in the last step, the obtained data were classified, codified (using open coding method through Excel software) synthesized and finally summarized.

In general, all the factors that affect the corporate governance formation in international joint ventures can be classified into four main categories of parents’ characteristics, partnership interactions, macro issues, and parents’ expectations and perceptions. Each category also includes a number of subcategories and codes. A total of 4 categories, 19 sub-categories and 75 codes make up the factors that play a role in the formation of corporate governance in international joint ventures.

According to the diversity of detected factors, it can be concluded that formation of corporate governance in international joint ventures is a complex process and multi-dimensional concept which cannot be undermined and treated like other types of organizations.