The rate of failure of strategic alliances is high in spite of spending too much money and resources for their formation. Theoretical background for this failure has focused on the structure of alliances, but this view does not have the required comprehensiveness for explaining the effect of structural frameworks on the performance of strategic alliances. In addition, there are scattered viewpoints in literature on the structure-performance relationship. We used a meta- synthesis approach in this paper to synthesize these viewpoints, in order to present a framework on structure-performance relationship. By reviewing and screening 129 published papers in accredited international  journals, 15 papers were studied. Using content analysis and Shannon method, 9 constructs including 31 codes were used in the final framework. Findings show that contract complexity, quality of relationship and freedom of action have the most effects on structure-performance relationship alliances. Furthermore, the optimization of alliance governance could not be reached without considering  contractual and relational governance