A successful international joint venture (IJV) is characterized by good corporate governance (CG),however, despite its importance, no study has been conducted that explains how CG forms in IJVs specifically. Due to the complexity of IJVs, we concentrated on CG and its formative factors exclusively, and this approach made this study and its findings unique. Thus, depicting a comprehensive portrait containing the influential factors that form CG in IJVs and validating the findings through a case study are the aims of this study. Out of the initial pool of 400 relevant publications, 77 factors of CG formation were identified via the systematic literature review research method. Among all of the recognized factors, just nine of them were found to be in effect for the case study companies, which are three Middle-Eastern IJVs. Lastly, “industry, business, and environment” were found as the determinant of formative factors in each type of IJVs.