Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is a versatile material with numerous applications in many fields of industry and science. The extent of applications, ranging from approved contact materials in the food industry to monitors for respiration and heart-rate in medicine, drives the research and development by the materials science community. The largest limiting factor when using PVDF in applications where its piezo- and pyroelectricity is important, is the amount of the highly polar crystalline β-phase in the material. PVDF is polymorphic and usually crystallizes from melt or solution into the non-polar α-phase, which is of little use in piezoelectric applications. Many studies have therefore aimed at increasing the amount of the β-phase crystal structure in the material. Cold drawing of α-phase PVDF, poling in high electric fields, copolymerization with trifluoroethylene, and inclusion of different types of additives to PVDF have been studied using both experimental and computational techniques. This review presents the current status and understanding of these processes, and summarizes results from previous studies. © Global Scientific Publishers 2015.