One of the methods to reach continuous improvement on economy is to boost export and target international market. However, there are some limits on available resources, which present most developing countries for improvement of export activities. One way to overcome such trouble is to use foreign direct investment but this may happen only when we could determine major barriers and overcome the challenges. The present study presents an empirical investigation to detect important barriers on foreign direct investment in Iranian industries. The proposed study uses structural equation modeling to detect major barriers for export development. The results of our survey indicate that there were four factors including economic factors, feasibility study, infrastructure for investment and investment resources influencing on foreign direct investment.