Which economist introduced the concept of 'creative destruction'?

Joseph Schumpeter introduced and popularized the concept of creative destruction.

Creative destruction describes how innovation transforms an economy by creating new products, technologies, and businesses while making older ones obsolete. Schumpeter presented the process as a defining feature of capitalism: economic development is not merely the management of existing structures but the continual disruption and replacement of them.

He is most closely associated with the expression because he developed it in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, first published in 1942. Schumpeter used it to explain dynamic competition and the role of entrepreneurial innovation in economic change. New production methods or markets can raise productivity and create wealth, even as established firms, occupations, and industries decline.

Karl Marx is a common alternative because Schumpeter explicitly drew on Marxist ideas about capitalism’s destruction and reorganization. However, Marx did not originate the exact modern association in economics. The German sociologist Werner Sombart used related language in 1913, while Schumpeter made the concept famous and connected it to innovation and business cycles.