The study can be summarised as the investigation of the nexus between information,knowledge and internationalisation-related decisions, in case embeddedness (a profound re-lation with the local culture) is a signature feature of firms. This relation is analysed througha multi-country study, in a three-year independent project that investigates the irrationalcomponents of managerial decisions. The study investigates how information converts intoknowledge, a topic that is seldom discussed in research. Information is selected, transformed,and eventually transmitted to the managers. Then, the decision-maker filters all informationand knowledge. The process continues until the final decision is taken. Information is centralin all parts of the project: as the medium connecting all stakeholders, and as the way theyexpress their identity. Managerial decisions are investigated through the flow of information;identifying who select and transmit information, and how such information becomes newknowledge. The study focuses only on the irrational component of managerial decisions; itdoes not discuss costs, profits or logistics. Rather, it investigates feelings, familiarity, idiosyn-crasies, even biases, which shape the firm’s persona. This investigation is one of the two, in-terrelated parts compose the study, each based on a different methodology.The study begins with a quantitative analysis, investigating the observable effects of infor-mation on international trade. Familiarity with the export market is found to be relevant forboth market selection and trade development, only for few products (namely consumer-ori-ented food products, and the food sector), but not for other sectors. The result gives a firstempirical evidence of the relevance of information (as an external resource) on trade. Furtherdata confirm the relevance of familiarity alongside other more rational drivers (i.e. connec-tivity). Hence, the quantitative analysis establishes that the consumer oriented food subsec-tor is a plausible choice for investigating information, knowledge and embeddedness, justify-ing the choice of that specific subsector for the second part of the project. The empirical out-come gives a valuable contribution to the literature on trade, discussing the factual relationbetween irrational drivers and firm’s choices.Then, the qualitative study examines the initial phases of firms’ internationalisation process,from the decision to initiate international operations (or simply to export their product), theevaluation and selection of a new market, to the mode of entry, when different modes arefeasible. The unit of analysis is the firm, and it speaks through the words of its top managers,owners, founders. Manager and firm’s identities are aligned, and managers, founders, ownersspeak for the entire firm, allowing the investigation of firms with different characteristics.The qualitative approach allows to answer the ‘how’ questions about the genesis and trans-mission of knowledge, and it is appropriate to investigating the complexity of the irrationalcomponent of decisions. The qualitative approach is also accessory for mapping the stake-holders involved, highlighting the relevance of all the brokers (i.e. the influence of all the in-termediators involved in the flow of information and knowledge).The study’s main finding is the connection between the firms’ embeddedness (the irrationalcomponent of a firm’s identity), and how information flows, is selected and transformed. Therelation extends to the embeddedness of all actors (including brokers and supporting ser-vices), in shaping the process. The qualitative part contributes to the literature defining therelation between external and internal resources. Further, it analyses how such resourcesconnect with personal characteristics of managers and firm’s identity.The relevance of both embeddedness and identity was the initial hypothesis, and the projectunfolds identifying which products (or sector) best exemplify the bond between culture, iden-tity, and managerial choices. The quantitative part indicates food as the best candidate, butthe irrational component of business decisions is not equally relevant for all food products. Aconsiderable effort and a relevant part of the project were necessary to validate the choiceof food as subject of the analysis, and to identify which kinds of products show such relation.The quantitative tool helped to establish the relation between consumer-oriented and nichefood products and familiarity (an indicator of a flow of information), and its influence on bothmarket selection and trade. Besides, the study criticises the validity of some other indicators,commonly (and perhaps mistakenly) used as proxies of familiarity.Finally, the project examines the state-of-the-art of the international business research onfood, concluding that there is little cohesion between research groups. The results indicate aneed for a shared vocabulary, beginning with the definition of food, as the researchers oninternational business and international entrepreneurship seem to lack a way to define thesector.The qualitative investigation confirms that the choice of the consumer-oriented and nichefood subsectors is a sound option. Additionally, food products show a signature relationshipwith their territory and community of origin, among other peculiarities. Although not uniqueto food, this relation influences the identity of firms, including most stakeholders involved infood production and its internationalisation process, creating a strong embeddedness thatfits well within the scope of the project.