The manufacturing industry’s interest in emerging markets has been increasing dramatically during the recent decades as their economy is growing. Western companies are making efforts to develop products for emerging markets but are also facing various challenges in the process of doing so. One major challenge is the identification of reliable and valuable design requirements. This study aims at investigating the influence of the emerging market context on the practice of identifying design requirements. A survey among Danish industry was conducted with 130 responses collected. 92 answers provided an insight into design requirement identification in a western context, whereas 62 provided an insight into both emerging and western contexts. The results indicate the importance of design requirement identification when developing for emerging markets. Requirement elicitation and analysis are the most challenging phases in a design requirement identification process for both western and emerging markets. For Danish companies, identifying design requirements for emerging markets is more difficult than that for western markets, particularly when considering user needs, governmental regulations and organizational infrastructures.