Nowadays, all thermo-mechanical effects, associated with the martensitic structural phase transitions, are still in the focus of scientists and engineers, especially once these phenomena are taking place at elevated temperatures. The list of the materials, undergoing high-temperature martensitic transformation, is constantly widening. Still, industrial application of these materials, called hightemperature shape memory alloys, is far enough due to the lack of understanding of the peculiarities of the high-temperature martensitic transformation and shape memory effect. The present work attempts to show how the development of the proper directions for high-temperature shape memory alloys' improvement might lead to the creation of essentially new functional materials.Keywords Martensitic phase transformation Á Crystal and electronic structure Á Shape memory behaviour Á High temperature shape memory alloys Á High entropy alloys