Joseph Schumpeter was an Austrian-American economist known as the 'Godfather' of innovation studies. He was born in Austria-Hungary and worked at several universities including Harvard. Schumpeter made major contributions through his description of "creative destruction," where innovation continuously destroys old economic structures and creates new ones. Some of his most influential books that explored these ideas included The Theory of Economic Development and Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Schumpeter defined innovation as new combinations of resources, knowledge, equipment, and markets that take five main forms: new products, production processes, markets, inputs, and organization.