Based on the background of the revitalization strategy of Northeast China and the realistic needs of innovation-driven development of cultural and creative industries, an analysis framework integrating structured indicators, policy texts and industrial data was constructed to systematically investigate the innovation-driven development mechanism of cultural and creative industries in Northeast China. The results show that the innovation-driven development of cultural and creative industries in Northeast China shows a pattern of policy traction, technology empowerment and resource activation. Among them, the technology empowerment path accounts for 27.8%, and the policy traction path accounts for 22.6%, indicating that digital technology embedding and institutional supply have become the main supporting forces, while market transformation and collaborative interaction are still the key links restricting high-quality development. This study could provide reference for the optimization and upgrading of cultural and creative industries and the integrated development of regional culture and economy in Northeast China.
