The impact of supply chain collaboration and digital technology on service operations flexibility: a moderated mediation model

Purpose This study investigates how supplier collaboration and customer collaboration influence service operations flexibility and how digital technology strengthens these relationships. Drawing on the dynamic capabilities view (DCV), supplier collaboration is conceptualised as a seizing capability, customer collaboration as a sensing capability and digital technology as a reconfiguring capability. The study further integrates a benchmarking orientation, positioning these capabilities as measurable indicators of adaptive performance in service operations. Design/methodology/approach A web-based survey was conducted among managers from UK service firms. The study employed a moderated mediation model to test the sequential and contingent relationships between supply chain collaboration, digital technology and service operations flexibility. Findings Results show that customer collaboration significantly enhances service operations flexibility, while supplier collaboration contributes indirectly through customer collaboration, confirming a full mediation effect. Moreover, digital technology positively moderates the mediating role of customer collaboration, amplifying its impact on flexibility. Practical implications The findings provide benchmarking indicators for managers to assess supply chain collaboration and flexibility performance. UK service firms can use measures such as the speed of customer feedback processing, supplier strategic partnership intensity and digital interactions across supply chain partners to compare performance against sectoral benchmarks. Originality/value The study extends the DCV by showing that sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capabilities operate across inter-firm relationships rather than within a single organisation. It introduces a benchmarking framework for evaluating collaboration and flexibility performance, bridging dynamic capability theory with comparative performance assessment in the UK service sectors.