<p>Marketing channels research identifies various positive performance outcomes of channel governance mechanisms but does not establish the relative effects across such mechanisms. Furthermore, their true performance impacts remain obfuscated by contradictory findings, which likely reflect some contingency effects. To establish a comprehensive research framework of channel governance and reconcile conflicting findings, the current study takes a holistic approach to country contingencies pertaining to country development and national culture factors. Evidence from an extensive meta-analysis of 303 studies, examining buyer–supplier relationships taking place within the same country across 27 countries (or regions) over the past three decades, highlights the greater importance of a relational theoretical perspective (e.g., trust) in driving performance, compared with transaction cost (e.g., transaction-specific investment) or transaction dynamics (e.g., incentive) perspectives. Yet their effectiveness also is contingent on the country; firms attain greater benefits from channel governance in countries with high market heterogeneity, superior institutional quality, or high uncertainty avoidance. The beneficial effects instead are weaker in countries with a high ease of doing business, which makes channel governance less impactful. This research enriches theory and advances practice by summarizing channel governance findings and providing channel managers with valuable insights into how to be effective in their business in different countries.</p>