which of the following is a key reason why international collaborations can be challenging?

A key reason international collaborations can be challenging is that collaborators often have different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds, leading to different norms, expectations, and ways of working.

Core idea

When people from different countries and disciplines work together, they may:

• Use different communication styles and levels of directness.

• Follow different professional norms, timelines, and decision‑making processes.

• Bring distinct theoretical or methodological traditions that do not automatically “fit” together.

These differences are a strength for creativity, but they also make misunderstanding, friction, and coordination problems more likely.

Typical exam-style answer

In multiple‑choice form, the correct option is usually along the lines of:

“The collaborators may have different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds and practices.”

This captures the main difficulty: aligning people who think and work in fundamentally different ways across borders.

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