To advance breakthroughs in core technologies and foster the growth of technology-based enterprises, China has introduced the Sci-Tech Finance Pilot Policy with the aim of promoting sci-tech enterprise development through optimized financial resource allocation. Based on a sample of technology-based firms listed on China’s SME Board and ChiNext Board from 2009 to 2023, this study empirically examines the relationships between the Sci-Tech Finance Pilot Policy, scale expansion, and technological innovation using a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) model. The key findings reveal that, first, the Sci-Tech Finance Pilot Policy simultaneously promotes corporate scale expansion and technological innovation, generating both scale and innovation effects; second, it generates scale and innovation effects by optimizing financial resource allocation, while scale expansion further induces additional innovation effects. Third, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the innovation effect of the Sci-Tech Finance Pilot Policy is stronger, and the scale effect is weaker when the technology-based enterprise is privately owned, possesses a solid R&D foundation, or operates in a favorable external innovation environment. The findings of this study demonstrate that technology finance policy promotes high-quality development through the synergy between scale and innovation, providing policy implications for developing countries in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly permeates entrepreneurial ecosystems, understanding how technological literacy relates to entrepreneurial team well-being has become an urgent priority. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial teams’ AI literacy and team well-being (distinguishing between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being). Furthermore, it investigates the mediating roles of entrepreneurial team efficacy and collective AI anxiety. Data were collected from a survey of 271 entrepreneurial teams across four major economic zones in China. This study relies on team leaders as primary informants to report team-level perceptions. The results show that AI literacy is positively related to team hedonic well-being, but exhibits no significant direct relationship with team eudaimonic well-being. However, AI literacy is indirectly associated with entrepreneurial team well-being through two parallel pathways: entrepreneurial team efficacy and collective AI anxiety. The findings shed light on how technological literacy is linked to team mental health via the dual mechanisms of cognitive resource gain and emotional loss prevention. This study broadens our understanding of well-being at the entrepreneurial team level and offers insights into cultivating literacy, enhancing efficacy, and managing emotions to improve entrepreneurial team well-being.