I am a co-investigator and organiser for the ESRC Funded Seminar Series: Business Models: Fast-Tracking Competitive Advantage. This series brings together diverse perspectives to explore the concept and practice of business models in a series of 8 seminars held over 3 years. Business models tell a story about the business, focusing attention on structure and using strategy to describe how the firm differentiates itself and deals with competition. Yet, research indicates that over 66% of firms have given no thought to their business model and are unable to articulate it. Accordingly, achieving competitive advantage for the majority of UK firms is an uphill battle and is a cause for concern, given the intensely competitive nature of the market place. This series of research seminars explores fundamental questions relating to business models in practice, how they work beyond the boundaries of the firm and into the wider business network and market, how certain models come to dominate sectors and how are they created, driven, picked-up, dropped or transformed. The 8 seminar series are: Seminar 1 Business Models: Rationale, applications and inter-organisation February 2014 British Library London Understanding the business models and exploring their dynamic nature, the seminar examines current business applications and explores links between business models and decision-making, innovation and creativity. Seminar 2 Business models and re-source configuration July 2014 Henley Strategic drift and its potential resource ramifications and strategic compatibility with firm resources and the capability to configure and reconfigure resources will be explored. What are the competing and disruptive business models? Seminar 3 Business model design, prototyping and testing November 2014 Strathclyde The evolutionary path of business models and how they create stability and change will be explored. How do business models transform and equally how they are transformed will be explored. Seminar 4 Business models and structural choices March 2014 Bristol The use of business models to under-stand the structural choices leaders make and how they manage different business models effectively. Seminar 5 Business Models: An Activity System Perspective, June 2015 Exeter The value creation component of business models is the activity systems that firms use to produce goods and services. This seminar uses a TASK-TYPE conceptualization to examine similarities and differences in activity system design. Seminar 6 Product-Service Systems and the servitization of manufacturing October 2015 Aston PSSs can benefit turnover and environ-mental sustainability, yet their uptake in UK manufacturers is slow. The seminar examines the impact of servitization on operations and introduces ‘gamification’ to evaluate servitization transformation. Seminar 7 Value and Outcome-based contracts as New Business Models: a Service-Dominant Logic Approach, February 2016, Warwick Servitization of manufacturing is explored through a Service-Dominant logic lens and its implications for the firm's business model. Case studies from Rolls Royce and BAE Systems will be dis-cussed with interaction with participants. Seminar 8 Business Models: shaping organisations and markets June 2016 Lancaster Examining how business models frame the action of firm, network and market actors, the seminar explores the way business models are represented, translated and circulated to new audiences.