An analysis of the driving forces behind the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region’s high-quality growth in the digital creative industries

The digital creative sector has grown enormously on a global scale as a result of the digital age’s fast progress. The development and transformation of the regional financial system in China is largely due to the efforts of the digital innovation industry. Hence, a comprehensive examination of the catalysts at the back of its premium boom is fundamental. The Yangtze River Delta (Abbreviation YRD) area is a powerful group of Chinese cities, well-known for its economic impact, the basis of its urbanization, and its total potential. It also offers some advantages related to the digital creative sector. The YRD area’s digital creative industries are growing, and this research looks at what’s behind that development. Through the compilation and analysis of surface-level data, the research focused on identifying the key drivers influencing the industry’s high-quality advancement. This is achieved by assessing the digital creative industries of the YRD and determining the elements that facilitate their continued growth and superior development using ArcMap10.8 and the entropy-weight-TOPSIS approach. This approach supports the assessment and ranking of the variables impacting the expansion of the digital creative industries in the YRD region. The findings demonstrate that: 1) The YRD region’s performance in developing a high-quality digital creative industry is improving between 2017 and 2022; 2) According to an assessment of growth in this sector, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have excelled, while Shanghai and Anhui provinces have lagged in developing digital creative industries over the past six years; 3) Anhui and Zhejiang provinces had the greatest outcomes, according to an annual study of the YRD digital creative industries conducted between 2017 and 2022. The digital creative sector in Zhejiang Province has performed well, showing a consistent growing trend; in contrast, Shanghai City’s industry has seen a decrease; while Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces have shown generally stable, slightly increasing tendencies; 4) In the weighting analysis of the indicators, the number of strategic emerging industry project transactions (C10), the total income of radio and television business units (C13), the number of ordinary undergraduate and specialist graduates of ordinary schools (C18), the area of land for public facilities (C24), and the regional gross domestic product (C12) are five indicators of significant impact on the development of the degree of influence.