Abstract: Existing studies on the performance of green innovation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt mostly treat it as a "black box" for analysis, but often ignore the different stages of its innovation process. Based on the innovation value chain perspective, the green innovation activities were divided into two stages: research and development of science and technology and transformation of achievement. A network SBM model was constructed to measure the total green innovation performance and sub-stage performance of 108 cities at prefecture level and above along the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2010 to 2019. The spatial and temporal divergence and dynamic evolution characteristics were explored using natural break points, Theil index, and kernel density estimation. The panel Tobit model was used to examine the influencing factors. The results showed that: (1) in general, the total green innovation performance, science and technology R&D performance and achievement conversion performance in Yangtze River Economic Belt all showed a fluctuating upward trend, and the total performance of green innovation and R&D performance showed a distribution pattern of "high at both ends and low in the middle", while the performance of results transformation showed a decreasing spatial pattern of "down-middle-up". The spatial layout of "down-middle-upstream" decreased. (2) In terms of spatial differences, the regional differences of total green innovation performance and sub-stage performance showed a fluctuating downward trend, and the differences showed the structural characteristics of total green innovation performance < achievement conversion performance < science and technology R&D performance. (3) In terms of dynamic evolution, the total performance and sub-stage performance of green innovation were polarized, and the degree of polarization was that science and technology R&D performance < total green innovation performance < achievement conversion performance. (4) Factor analysis showed that innovation support, industrial structure, and environmental regulation had significant effects on green innovation and sub-stage performance, and there were obvious stage differences in the effects of intellectual property protection, enterprise scale, human capital, and urbanization on green innovation performance. These results provide a reference for decision making to promote green innovation performance enhancement and regional synergistic development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.