Despite emphasis in numerous upstream documents, a significant gap exists between the predicted goals and the actual performance of Iran's industrial sector (with an average growth rate of 1.5% in the 2010s). This research aimed to systematically analyze the executive barriers of Iran's industrial development documents and explain the hierarchical and causal relationships between them. This applied research utilized a mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) approach. In the first step, employing thematic analysis and the study of documents and semi-structured interviews with 8 experts, the main barriers were identified. In the second step, the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) method and MICMAC analysis were used, and the necessary data were collected and analyzed through a pairwise comparison questionnaire completed by 15 experts. Based on the findings, 6 main barriers were identified. ISM and MICMAC analyses revealed that the barrier "Lack of positive interaction between policymakers and stakeholders" was the most influential factor on the entire system, acting as an independent and fundamental variable. This barrier was placed at the most foundational level of the model. In contrast, barriers such as "Lack of consensus on the vision" and "Unclear leading institution" were identified as dependent and high-level variables.