The innovation ecosystem plays a fundamental role in value creation, economic growth, and sustainable national development. It facilitates access to external resources, accelerates the transformation of knowledge into new products and services, fosters cross-sectoral collaboration, and enhances national competitiveness. In the absence of a well-functioning innovation ecosystem, innovative initiatives often stagnate at early stages. Accordingly, the present study aims to identify and analyze the key components of Iran’s innovation ecosystem and to examine the causal relationships among them. To achieve this objective, a mixed qualitative–quantitative approach was employed, integrating thematic analysis and fuzzy DEMATEL. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 experts and active participants within Iran’s innovation ecosystem and subsequently analyzed. The findings reveal ten fundamental components shaping the national innovation ecosystem. Among these, simultaneous attention to three core elements—key actors, competitive environment, and innovation capability—is essential. Governance and policymaking emerge as the most influential component, playing a pivotal role in strengthening and aligning these dimensions. Moreover, financial resources and investment are found to be most effective when allocated within a competitive context and to actors possessing strong innovation capabilities; otherwise, financial injections into non-competitive environments and to actors lacking innovative capacity are unlikely to yield optimal outcomes. The results further identify governance and policymaking, along with market and demand conditions, as independent and driving variables within the ecosystem. In this regard, direct market interventions—such as price controls on innovative products—may generate unintended negative consequences for more dependent components, particularly key actors and human capital.