This research investigates the relationship between supplier capabilities, inter-firm governance and buyer-supplier collaboration. The research focuses on three functional capabilities (Research and Development (R&D), Production and Support services capability), two governance mechanisms (Contractual and Relational governance) and three types of buyer-supplier collaboration (Information sharing, Collaborative product/service development and Collaborative problem solving). A theoretical framework is developed which first examines the multiple mediation effect of contractual and relational governance on the relationship between capability and collaboration type, and second, explores the relative strength of the indirect effect through contractual and relational governance. Survey based research methodology is used to empirically test the hypotheses in this research. Data are collected from a total of 120 SMEs in the UK aerospace industry. Bootstrapping based techniques are used to analyse the data and to examine the proposed relationship between capability, governance and collaboration. The empirical findings indicate that although both contractual and relational governance are important in order to link the supplier capability with collaboration, the individual effect of contractual and relational governance varies in different combinations of capabilities and collaboration types. The potential contribution of this research is twofold: first, in terms of academic contribution, this study combines the arguments of Resource Based View and Transaction Cost Economics to provide a holistic view in explaining the interrelation between capability, governance and buyer-supplier collaboration; Second, in terms of practical contribution, this study improves the understanding of practitioners in both buying and supplying firm regarding the alignment of interfirm exchange processes with capabilities to achieve better performance in collaboration