Research on the Optimization of Internal Control Audit of Small and Medium-sized State-owned Bookstores: A Case Study of Shanghai Songjiang Xinhua Bookstore

Abstract

Digital reading and online book e-commerce are eating into the living space of real bookstores. Small and medium-sized stateowned bookstores have the dual attributes of public cultural services and market-oriented operation. The pressure on state-owned cultural
assets is increasing. Internal control audit is an important tool for grass-roots stores to prevent operational risks and guard the bottom line
of state-owned assets supervision. This paper takes Shanghai Songjiang Xinhua Bookstore as a sample, based on COSO's five elements of
internal control and risk-oriented audit theory, and combined with the store's operating account and audit archives from 2023 to 2025 to
conduct on-the-spot investigation and research, and summarizes six major problems in the aspects of control environment, risk identification, control activities, information exchange and internal supervision, such as wrong audit understanding, poor adaptability of audit system, lack of professional auditors, small coverage of business audit, backward digital audit and lack of rectification and closure. Combined
with the resource constraints of small staff and small budget in the grass-roots stores, a six-in-one lightweight optimization system of "cognition-system-talents-full business coverage-digital audit-rectification supervision" was created. This paper makes innovative research on
small and micro state-owned bookstores in sinking counties, carries out empirical analysis, and formulates a zero-transformation low-cost
audit landing plan, which enriches the gaps of internal audit cases in the state-owned cultural retail segment industry, and provides practical reference for basic Xinhua bookstores in Shanghai and even the whole country to balance social and economic benefits and prevent the
loss of state-owned assets.