Nowadays, martensitic transformation and shape memory effect, superelasticity, high damping capacity and other effects associated with this type of 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 this kind of transformation is constantly widening. Yet, industrial application of these materials, called high temperature shape memory alloys, is still hindered due to the lack of understanding of the peculiarities of the high temperature martensitic transformation and shape memory effect. Present work summarizes results of scientific studies of these high temperature phenomena oriented onto the development of physical principles suitable for industrial high temperature shape memory alloys design.