“创造性破坏”(creative destruction)的思想最早来自马克思。马克思认为资本为追逐利润而无限创新,由此导致商品的“绝对过剩”,并最终导致资本主义的灭亡。熊彼得发展了这一思想并创造性地将其用于解释经济成长与经济创新,他在《Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy》一书中系统阐述了这一思想,他认为 "the process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one." 熊彼得认为创新是成长的必由之路,创新是通过不断破坏旧有生产方式与经济结构实现的,这是成长的代价。