Institutional networking and the development of collaboration ties are considered key strategies for reducing costs, enhancing efficiency, and strengthening organizations’ competitive advantages. Identifying the criteria that influence the formation of such relationships constitutes a crucial step in institutional development and the attainment of competitive advantage. Nevertheless, many organizations have failed to achieve this objective. Accordingly, the current study aims to examine and analyze the drivers of institutional collaboration among livestock cooperatives in Qom Province. To this end, a list comprising 17 criteria for institutional networking drivers was identified and analyzed using the Importance–Performance Matrix (IPM) within five distinct scenarios (including the baseline, resource-surplus, resource-deficient, strength-enhancement, and weakness-reduction scenarios). Data were collected based on the perspectives of 15 CEOs from livestock cooperatives in Qom Province. The findings revealed that under normal conditions, cooperatives should sustain their collaborations based on criteria such as access to new resources, cost reduction, competence, accurate information, commitment, transparency, skill, uncertainty reduction, and information security. In situations with adequate resources, criteria such as new market opportunities and shared needs gain greater importance. Under conditions of resource constraints or when cooperatives seek to reinforce their strengths, none of the identified criteria play a decisive role. Finally, when cooperatives aim to mitigate their weaknesses, the nature of the required networking criteria tends to balance economic and social dimensions, emphasizing factors such as discovering new markets and opportunities, kinship relations, influence/reputation, and social solidarity.