Abstract
Firms can enhance product innovation performance by continuously staying in touchwith customers and themarket in general.While studies onmarket oriented product development have identified several general dimensions of market knowledge used in product innovation, the nature of market knowledge that is specifically important in the chemical industry remains unclear.Because firmrelevant knowledge resources are increasingly seen as being industry specific, filling this gap becomes more relevant. This study uses a multiple case study of six product
innovation projects in six different companies to identify importantmarket knowledge dimensions in the product development of chemical firms. Aggregated results from the six cases point to segment knowledge, application knowledge, product usage knowledge, and customer knowledge as being important market knowledge dimensions. Implications for theory and practice aswell as avenues for further research are included.
